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arXiv · 2504.13118

CEERS: Forging the First Dust Grains in the Universe? A Population of Galaxies with spectroscopically-derived Extremely Low Dust Attenuation (GELDA) at 4.0<z<11.4

Denis Burgarella·Véronique Buat·Patrice Theulé·Jorge Zavala·Mark Dickinson·Pablo Arrabal Haro·Micaela B. Bagley·Médéric Boquien·Nikko Cleri·Tim Dewachter·Henry C. Ferguson·Vital Fernàndez·Steven L. Finkelstein·Eric Gawiser·Andrea Grazian·Norman Grogin·Benne W. Holwerda·Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe·Lisa Kewley·Allison Kirkpatrick·Dale Kocevski·Anton M. Koekemoer·Arianna Long·Jennifer Lotz·Ray A. Lucas·Bahram Mobasher·Casey Papovich·Pablo G. Pérez-Gonzàlez·Nor Pirzkal·Swara Ravindranath·Giulia Rodighiero·Yannick Roehlly·Caitlin Rose·Lise-Marie Seillé·Rachel Somerville·Steve Wilkins·Guang Yang·L. Y. Aaron Yung
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Abstract

We investigate the coevolution of metals and dust in 173 galaxies at $4.0 8.8$ (83.3%) than at $z<8.8$ (26.3%) suggesting they dominate the early Universe. Assuming a prior FIR dust spectrum (from ALPINE), we examine dust-stellar mass trends. The $M_{dust}$ vs. $M_{star}$ diagram shows upper and lower sequences linked by possible transitional galaxies. A transition at $M_{star}=10^8.5 M_\odot$ ($Z_{crit}=12+\log_{10}(O/H)=7.60$ or $Z/Z_\odot=0.1$) may mark the shift from stellar dust production to ISM grain growth, in agreement with theoretical predictions. Our full sample has a high mean gas fraction ($f_{gas}>0.9$), indicating retained gas across all galaxies. Their small sizes and large gas masses imply high gas surface densities but relatively low star formation efficiency. High-redshift GELDAs may naturally explain the observed excess of bright galaxies at $z>9$ compared to theoretical expectations.

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Denis Burgarella, Véronique Buat, Patrice Theulé, Jorge Zavala, Mark Dickinson, Pablo Arrabal Haro, Micaela B. Bagley, Médéric Boquien, Nikko Cleri, Tim Dewachter, Henry C. Ferguson, Vital Fernàndez, Steven L. Finkelstein, Eric Gawiser, Andrea Grazian, Norman Grogin, Benne W. Holwerda, Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe, Lisa Kewley, Allison Kirkpatrick, Dale Kocevski, Anton M. Koekemoer, Arianna Long, Jennifer Lotz, Ray A. Lucas, Bahram Mobasher, Casey Papovich, Pablo G. Pérez-Gonzàlez, Nor Pirzkal, Swara Ravindranath, Giulia Rodighiero, Yannick Roehlly, Caitlin Rose, Lise-Marie Seillé, Rachel Somerville, Steve Wilkins, Guang Yang, L. Y. Aaron Yung. 2025-04-17. CEERS: Forging the First Dust Grains in the Universe? A Population of Galaxies with spectroscopically-derived Extremely Low Dust Attenuation (GELDA) at 4.0<z<11.4. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361%2F202554231

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