Sullivan post-doctoral fellow Caleb Choban shared his research on dust in the early universe at the Evolution of Dust and Gas through Cosmic Time conference in Hiroshima earlier in December. Caleb highlighted how reliable dust evolution models are needed to interpret ALMA and future JWST observations of dusty, star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) in the early universe at z<5. Caleb described a suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations of moderately massive, high-redshift galaxies that incorporate a dust evolution model he developed. His model accounts for the dominant sources of dust production, growth, and destruction and follows the evolution of specific dust species, allowing the model to replicate a wide range of present-day observations.
Caleb finds that the dominant producer of dust mass in DSFGs is dust growth via gas-dust accretion, but this process falls short of observations, most likely due to low galactic metallicities and bursty star formation. Some of the deficiency can be made up with higher rates of accretion and more supernovae (top-heavy IMF), but observational uncertainties of dust temperatures leading to overestimated dust masses may be the answer.
Caleb received a “best poster” award for his work – a 10 minute talk slot and Space Oreos! Congratulations, Caleb.
The College of Arts