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arXiv · 2601.22844

MAGAZ3NE: Dust Deficiency in Ultramassive Quiescent Galaxies at $3<z<4$ with ALMA Observations

Wenjun Chang·Gillian Wilson·Ben Forrest·Ian McConachie·Allison Noble·Adam Muzzin·Danilo Marchesini·Michael C. Cooper·Tracy Webb·Gabriela Canalizo·Percy L. Gomez·Yongda Zhu·Adit Edward·Han Lei·Aurélien Henry·Stephanie M. Urbano Stawinski·Marie E. Wisz
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Abstract

A major challenge in identifying massive quiescent galaxies at $z>3$ is distinguishing truly passive systems from dust-obscured star-forming galaxies, as both populations exhibit similar red ultraviolet (UV)-to-near-infrared (NIR) colors. In this work, we present ALMA Band 7 dust-continuum observations of five ultramassive galaxies (UMGs; $\log (M_\star / M_\odot) > 11$) spectroscopically confirmed at $z_{\rm spec} > 3$ from the MAGAZ3NE survey. Our results reveal that only one galaxy shows a faint 870 \um\ dust continuum detection, while the remaining four UMGs are undetected down to the $3\sigma$ depth . By incorporating ALMA constraints into the spectral energy distribution analysis, we confirm that these UV-NIR-selected systems are truly quiescent UMGs, lying more than one dex below the star-forming main sequence with $\mathrm{\log (sSFR/Gyr^{-1}) < -1}$, thereby ruling out the possibility of obscured star formation. We then estimate dust masses using both spectral energy distribution modeling and modified blackbody fitting, with consistent results between the two methods. We find that three UMGs have evolved into extremely dust-poor quiescent galaxies, with $M_{\mathrm{dust}}/M_\star \lesssim 10^{-4}$, while the ALMA-detected galaxy has a comparatively higher dust reservoir with $M_{\mathrm{dust}}/M_\star \sim 10^{-3}$. Our results present the most massive and extremely dust-poor spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies known at $3 < z < 4$, providing valuable observational constraints on rapid dust removal and quenching processes in the early universe. Future molecular line observations will be essential to directly measure the gas content and verify the efficiency of the depletion process.

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Wenjun Chang, Gillian Wilson, Ben Forrest, Ian McConachie, Allison Noble, Adam Muzzin, Danilo Marchesini, Michael C. Cooper, Tracy Webb, Gabriela Canalizo, Percy L. Gomez, Yongda Zhu, Adit Edward, Han Lei, Aurélien Henry, Stephanie M. Urbano Stawinski, Marie E. Wisz. 2026-01-30. MAGAZ3NE: Dust Deficiency in Ultramassive Quiescent Galaxies at $3<z<4$ with ALMA Observations. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22844

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