Cosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust Temperatures
In the current era of high- z galaxy discovery with JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, our ability to study the stellar populations and interstellar medium conditions in a diverse range of galaxies at Cosmic Dawn has rapidly improved. At the same time, the need to understand...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2024-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad306c |
| _version_ | 1797213071076229120 |
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| author | Sidney Lower Desika Narayanan Chia-Yu Hu George C. Privon |
| author_facet | Sidney Lower Desika Narayanan Chia-Yu Hu George C. Privon |
| author_sort | Sidney Lower |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the current era of high- z galaxy discovery with JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, our ability to study the stellar populations and interstellar medium conditions in a diverse range of galaxies at Cosmic Dawn has rapidly improved. At the same time, the need to understand the current limitations in modeling galaxy formation processes and physical properties in order to interpret these observations is critical. Here, we study the challenges in modeling galaxy dust temperatures, both in the context of forward modeling galaxy spectral properties from a hydrodynamical simulation and via backwards modeling galaxy physical properties from mock observations of far-infrared dust emission. Using the simba model for galaxy formation combined with powderday radiative transfer, we can accurately predict the evolution of dust at high redshift, though several aspects of the model are essentially free parameters (dust composition, subresolution dust in star-forming regions) that dull the predictive power of the model dust temperature distributions. We also highlight the uncertainties in the backwards modeling methods, where we find the commonly used models and assumptions to fit far-infrared spectral energy distributions and infer dust temperatures (e.g., single temperature, optically thin modified blackbody) largely fail to capture the complexity of high- z dusty galaxies. We caution that conclusions inferred from both simulations—limited by resolution and post-processing techniques—and observations—limited by sparse data and simplistic model parameterizations—are susceptible to unique and nuanced uncertainties that can limit the usefulness of current high- z dust measurements. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:52:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b9399b3ce255484a9b7a68616298a32d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:52:26Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-b9399b3ce255484a9b7a68616298a32d2024-04-12T08:10:37ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572024-01-01965212310.3847/1538-4357/ad306cCosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust TemperaturesSidney Lower0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4422-8595Desika Narayanan1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7064-4309Chia-Yu Hu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9235-3529George C. Privon3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3474-1125Department of Astronomy, University of Florida , 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611, USADepartment of Astronomy, University of Florida , 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; University of Florida Informatics Institute , 432 Newell Drive, CISE Bldg E251 Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; Cosmic Dawn Centre at the Niels Bohr Institue, University of Copenhagen and DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark , DenmarkDepartment of Astronomy, University of Florida , 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611, USADepartment of Astronomy, University of Florida , 211 Bryant Space Science Center, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USAIn the current era of high- z galaxy discovery with JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, our ability to study the stellar populations and interstellar medium conditions in a diverse range of galaxies at Cosmic Dawn has rapidly improved. At the same time, the need to understand the current limitations in modeling galaxy formation processes and physical properties in order to interpret these observations is critical. Here, we study the challenges in modeling galaxy dust temperatures, both in the context of forward modeling galaxy spectral properties from a hydrodynamical simulation and via backwards modeling galaxy physical properties from mock observations of far-infrared dust emission. Using the simba model for galaxy formation combined with powderday radiative transfer, we can accurately predict the evolution of dust at high redshift, though several aspects of the model are essentially free parameters (dust composition, subresolution dust in star-forming regions) that dull the predictive power of the model dust temperature distributions. We also highlight the uncertainties in the backwards modeling methods, where we find the commonly used models and assumptions to fit far-infrared spectral energy distributions and infer dust temperatures (e.g., single temperature, optically thin modified blackbody) largely fail to capture the complexity of high- z dusty galaxies. We caution that conclusions inferred from both simulations—limited by resolution and post-processing techniques—and observations—limited by sparse data and simplistic model parameterizations—are susceptible to unique and nuanced uncertainties that can limit the usefulness of current high- z dust measurements.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad306cInterstellar dustSpectral energy distributionRadiative transfer simulationsAstronomical simulations |
| spellingShingle | Sidney Lower Desika Narayanan Chia-Yu Hu George C. Privon Cosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust Temperatures The Astrophysical Journal Interstellar dust Spectral energy distribution Radiative transfer simulations Astronomical simulations |
| title | Cosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust Temperatures |
| title_full | Cosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust Temperatures |
| title_fullStr | Cosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust Temperatures |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust Temperatures |
| title_short | Cosmic Sands. II. Challenges in Predicting and Measuring High-z Dust Temperatures |
| title_sort | cosmic sands ii challenges in predicting and measuring high z dust temperatures |
| topic | Interstellar dust Spectral energy distribution Radiative transfer simulations Astronomical simulations |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad306c |
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