The assembly of dusty galaxies at z ≥ 4: statistical properties

The recent discovery of high-redshift dusty galaxies implies a rapid dust enrichment of their interstellar medium (ISM). To interpret these observations, we run a cosmological simulation in a 30h(-1) cMpc/size volume down to z approximate to 4. We use the hydrodynamical code DUSTYGADGET, which accounts for the production of dust by stellar populations and its evolution in the ISM. We find that the cosmic dust density parameter (Omega(d)) is mainly driven by stellar dust at z greater than or similar to 10, so that mass- and metallicity-dependent yields are required to assess the dust content in the first galaxies. At z less than or similar to 9, the growth of grains in the ISM of evolved systems [log(M-*/M-circle dot) > 8.5] significantly increases their dust mass, in agreement with observations in the redshift range 4 less than or similar to z < 8. Our simulation shows that the variety of high-redshift galaxies observed with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array can naturally be accounted for by modelling the grain growth time-scale as a function of the physical conditions in the gas cold phase. In addition, the trends of dust-to-metal and dust-to-gas (D) ratios are compatible with the available data. A qualitative investigation of the inhomogeneous dust distribution in a representative massive halo at z approximate to 4 shows that dust is found from the central galaxy up to the closest satellites along polluted filaments with log(D) <= -2.4, but sharply declines at distances d greater than or similar to 30 kpc along many lines of sight, where log(D) less than or similar to -4.0.