Distribution of Dust around Galaxies: An Analytic Model

Abstract

We develop an analytic halo model for the distribution of dust around galaxies. The model results are compared with the observed surface dust density profile measured through reddening of background quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) reported by Menard et al.(2010). We assume that the dust distribution around a galaxy is described by a simple power law, similarly to the mass distribution, but with a sharp cut-off at $\alpha R_{\mathrm{vir}}$ where $R_{\mathrm{vir}}$ is the galaxy's virial radius and $\alpha$ is a model parameter. Our model reproduces the observed dust distribution profile very well over a wide range of radial distance of $10-10^4{h}^{-1}$kpc. For the characteristic galaxy halo mass of $2\times 10^{12}{h}^{-1}{M}_{\odot }$ estimated for the SDSS galaxies, the best fit model is obtained if $\alpha$ is greater than unity, which suggests that dust is distributed to over a few hundred kilo-parsecs from the galaxies. The observed large-scale dust distribution profile is reproduced if we assume the total amount of dust is equal to that estimated from the integrated stellar evolution over the cosmic time.

5 pages, 4 figures, corrected typo and minor revisions, results unchanged, MNRAS Letters, in press

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• Glow in the Dark Matter: Observing galactic halos with scattered light