The IRX-Beta Dust Attenuation Relation in Cosmological Galaxy Formation Simulations

Abstract

We utilise a series of high-resolution cosmological zoom simulations of galaxy formation to investigate the relationship between the ultraviolet (UV) slope, beta, and the ratio of the infrared luminosity to UV luminosity (IRX) in the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies. We employ dust radiative transfer calculations in which the SEDs of the stars in galaxies propagate through the dusty interstellar medium. Our main goals are to understand the origin of, and scatter in the IRX-beta relation; to assess the efficacy of simplified stellar population synthesis screen models in capturing the essential physics in the IRX-beta relation; and to understand systematic deviations from the canonical local IRX-beta relations in particular populations of high-redshift galaxies. Our main results follow. Galaxies that have young stellar populations with relatively cospatial UV and IR emitting regions and a Milky Way-like extinction curve fall on or near the standard Meurer relation. This behaviour is well captured by simplified screen models. Scatter in the IRX-beta relation is dominated by three major effects: (i) older stellar populations drive galaxies below the relations defined for local starbursts due to a reddening of their intrinsic UV SEDs; (ii) complex geometries in high-z heavily star forming galaxies drive galaxies toward blue UV slopes owing to optically thin UV sightlines; (iii) shallow extinction curves drive galaxies downward in the IRX-beta plane due to lowered NUV/FUV extinction ratios. We use these features of the UV slopes of galaxies to derive a fitting relation that reasonably collapses the scatter back toward the canonical local relation. Finally, we use these results to develop an understanding for the location of two particularly enigmatic populations of galaxies in the IRX-beta plane: z~2-4 dusty star forming galaxies, and z>5 star forming galaxies.

Submitted to MNRAS; comments welcome

References in corpus (33)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• UV Luminosity Functions at redshifts z~4 to z~10: 10000 Galaxies from HST Legacy Fields
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies
• Mass, Metal, and Energy Feedback in Cosmological Simulations
• Multi-Wavelength Constraints on the Cosmic Star Formation History from Spectroscopy: the Rest-Frame UV, H-alpha, and Infrared Luminosity Functions at Redshifts 1.9<z<3.4
• Evolution of asymptotic giant branch stars I. Updated synthetic TP-AGB models and their basic calibration
• A dusty, normal galaxy in the epoch of reionization
• An Ultraviolet-to-Radio Broadband Spectral Atlas of Nearby Galaxies
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Survey Description
• Submillimetre galaxies in a hierarchical universe: number counts, redshift distribution, and implications for the IMF
• Are Dusty Galaxies Blue? Insights on UV Attenuation from Dust-Selected Galaxies
• ALMA spectroscopic survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Continuum number counts, resolved 1.2-mm extragalactic background, and properties of the faintest dusty star forming galaxies
• UV Dust Attenuation in Star-forming Galaxies: II Calibrating the A(UV) vs. L_TIR/L_UV relation
• MUFASA: Galaxy star formation, gas, and metal properties across cosmic time
• VLA and ALMA Imaging of Intense, Galaxy-Wide Star Formation in z ~ 2 Galaxies
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Molecular gas reservoirs in high-redshift galaxies
• Molecular Star Formation Rate Indicators in Galaxies
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: Search for [CII] line and dust emission in 6<z<8 galaxies
• Dissecting the IRX - $\beta$ dust attenuation relation: exploring the physical origin of observed variations in galaxies
• Ultraviolet through Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions from 1000 SDSS Galaxies: Dust Attenuation
• Evolution of cosmic star formation in the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey
• ALMA Reveals Weak [NII] Emission in "Typical" Galaxies and Intense Starbursts at z=5-6
• A self-consistent model of Galactic stellar and dust infrared emission and the abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
• The Dust Attenuation of Star-forming Galaxies at $z\sim 3$ and Beyond: New Insights from ALMA Observations
• Interpreting the evolution of galaxy colours from $z=8$ to $z=5$
• The merger-driven evolution of warm infrared luminous galaxies
• Ultraviolet, Optical, and Infrared Constraints on Models of Stellar Populations and Dust Attenuation
• Extinction Corrected Star Formation Rates Empirically Derived from Ultraviolet-Optical Colors
• ALMA observations of Lyman-alpha Blob 1: halo sub-structure illuminated from within
• A resolved map of the infrared excess in a Lyman Break Galaxy at z=3
• Characterizing Ultraviolet and Infrared Observational Properties for Galaxies. II. Features of Attenuation Law
• Star Formation Rate and Extinction in Faint z~4 Lyman-Break Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (38)

• The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey Large Program: The Infrared Excess of z=1.5-10 UV-selected Galaxies and the Implied High-Redshift Star Formation History
• Dust attenuation, dust emission, and dust temperature in galaxies at z>=5: a view from the FIRE-2 simulations
• The East Asian Observatory SCUBA--2 survey of the COSMOS field: unveiling 1147 bright sub-millimeter sources across 2.6 square degrees
• ALMA reveals metals yet no dust within multiple components in CR7
• A spatially resolved study of cold dust, molecular gas, HII regions, and stars in the $z=2.12$ submillimeter galaxy ALESS67.1
• Beyond UVJ: More Efficient Selection of Quiescent Galaxies With UV / Mid-IR Fluxes
• Cold dust and stellar emissions in dust-rich galaxies observed with ALMA: a challenge for SED-fitting techniques
• Confirming Herschel candidate protoclusters from ALMA/VLA CO observations
• A${}^3$COSMOS: The Dust Attenuation of Star-Forming Galaxies at $z=2.5-4.0$ from the COSMOS-ALMA Archive
• Radiative equilibrium estimates of dust temperature and mass in high-redshift galaxies
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] survey: Dust mass budget in the early Universe
• High redshift JWST predictions from IllustrisTNG: III. Infrared luminosity functions, obscured star formation and dust temperature of high-redshift galaxies
• The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: the radio view of the cosmic star formation history
• Diversity of Galaxy Dust Attenuation Curves Drives the Scatter in the IRX-beta Relation
• The IRX-$\beta$ relation of high-redshift galaxies
• Resolving a dusty, star-forming SHiZELS galaxy at z=2.2 with HST, ALMA and SINFONI on kiloparsec scales
• Quenching and the UVJ diagram in the SIMBA cosmological simulation
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] survey: dust attenuation curves at z=4.4-5.5
• Dependence of the IRX-$\beta$ dust attenuation relation on metallicity and environment
• High-resolution synthetic UV-submm images for Milky Way-mass simulated galaxies from the ARTEMIS project
• Geometry effects on dust attenuation curves with different grain sources at high redshift
• Dust masses of $z>5$ galaxies from SED fitting and ALMA upper limits
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] Survey: the population of [CII]-undetected galaxies and their role in the ${\mathrm{L}}_{[\mathrm{CII}]}$-SFR relation
• G.A.S. II: Dust extinction in galaxies; Luminosity functions and InfraRed eXcess
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: Dust attenuation in high-redshift Lyman break Galaxies
• Dust attenuation in galaxies at cosmic dawn from the FirstLight simulations
• An Orientation Bias in Observations of Submillimetre Galaxies
• A Variant Stellar-to-nebular Dust Attenuation Ratio on Subgalactic and Galactic Scales
• Variation of dust properties with cosmic time implied by radiative torque disruption
• ALMA 26 arcmin${}^2$ survey of GOODS-S at one-millimeter (ASAGAO): millimeter properties of stellar mass selected galaxies
• Dust in High-Redshift Galaxies: Reconciling UV Attenuation and IR Emission
• The ALMA Frontier Fields survey V: ALMA Stacking of Lyman-Break Galaxies in Abell 2744, Abell 370, Abell S1063, MACSJ0416.1-2403 and MACSJ1149.5+2223
• The MOSDEF Survey: The Dependence of H$\alpha$-to-UV SFR Ratios on SFR and Size at $z\sim 2$
• Effects of dust sources on dust attenuation properties in IllustrisTNG galaxies at $z\sim 7$
• Decoding the IRX-β dust attenuation relation in star-forming galaxies at intermediate redshift
• Stellar, Gas, and Dust Emission of Star Forming Galaxies out to z~2
• ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey: Dust mass measurements as a function of redshift, stellar-mass and star formation rate, from z=1 to z=5
• First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations (FLARES) III: The properties of massive dusty galaxies at cosmic dawn