arXiv subjects

Hiroyuki Hirashita

Publications and source records attributed to Hiroyuki Hirashita.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Dust SEDs in Milky Way-like galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations based on the evolution of grain size distribution

To understand how the evolution of grain size distribution in galaxies affects observed dust properties, we apply a post-processing dust evolution model to galaxy merger trees from the IllustrisTNG cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. Our dust model includes stellar dust production, sputtering in hot gas, dust growth by accretion and coagulation in the dense interstellar medium (ISM), and shattering in the diffuse ISM. We decompose the grain size distribution into different dust species depending on the elemental abundances and the dense ISM fraction given by the simulation. In our previous work, we focused on Milky Way (MW) analogs and reproduced the observed MW extinction curve. In this study, we compute dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for the MW analogues. Our simulated SEDs broadly reproduce the observed MW SED within their dispersion and so does the observational data of nearby galaxies, although they tend to underpredict the MW SED at short wavelengths where emission is dominated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We find that metallicity and dense gas fraction are the most critical factors for the SED shape, through their influence on coagulation and shattering.The overall success of our models in reproducing the MW SED further justifies the dust evolution processes included in the model and predicts the dispersion in the SEDs caused by the variety in the assembly history. We also show that the most significant increase in the dust SED occurs between redshifts $z\sim 3$ and 2 in the progenitors of the simulated MW-like galaxies.

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arXiv2021

Dissecting Nearby Galaxies with piXedfit: I. Spatially Resolved Properties of Stars, Dust, and Gas as Revealed by Panchromatic SED Fitting

We study spatially resolved properties (on spatial scales of $\sim 1-2$ kpc out to at least $3$ effective radii) of the stars, dust, and gas in ten nearby spiral galaxies. The properties of the stellar population and dust are derived by fitting the spatially resolved spectral energy distribution (SED) with more than 20 photometric bands ranging from far-ultraviolet to far-infrared. Our newly developed software piXedfit performs point spread function matching of images, pixel binning, and models the stellar light, dust attenuation, dust emission, and emission from a dusty torus heated by an active galactic nucleus simultaneously through the energy balance approach. With this self-consistent analysis, we present the spatially resolved version of the IRX--$β$ relation, finding that it is consistent with the relationship from the integrated photometry. We show that the old stellar populations contribute to the dust heating, which causes an overestimation of star formation rate (SFR) derived from the total ultraviolet and infrared luminosities on kpc scales. With archival high-resolution maps of atomic and molecular gas, we study the radial variation of the properties of the stellar populations (including stellar mass, age, metallicity, and SFR), dust (including dust mass, dust temperature, and abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon), gas, as well as dust-to-stellar mass and dust-to-gas mass ratios. We observe a depletion of molecular gas mass fraction in the central region of the majority of the galaxies, suggesting that the lack of available fuel is an important factor in suppressing the specific SFR at the center.

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arXiv2021

Evolution of dust grain size distribution and grain porosity in galaxies

The radiative properties of interstellar dust are affected not only by the grain size distribution but also by the grain porosity. We develop a model for the evolution of size-dependent grain porosity and grain size distribution over the entire history of galaxy evolution. We include stellar dust production, supernova dust destruction, shattering, coagulation, and accretion. Coagulation is {assumed to be} the source of grain porosity. We use a one-zone model with a constant dense gas fraction ($η_\mathrm{dense}$), which regulates the balance between shattering and coagulation. We find that porosity develops after small grains are sufficiently created by the interplay between shattering and accretion (at age $t\sim 1$ Gyr for star formation time-scale $τ_\mathrm{SF}=5$ Gyr) and are coagulated. The filling factor drops down to 0.3 at grain radii $\sim 0.03~μ$m for $η_\mathrm{dense}=0.5$. The grains are more porous for smaller $η_\mathrm{dense}$ because small grains, from which porous coagulated grains form, are more abundant. We also calculate the extinction curves based on the above results. The porosity steepens the extinction curve significantly for silicate, but not much for amorphous carbon. The porosity also increases the collisional cross-sections and produces slightly more large grains through the enhanced coagulation; however, the extinction curve does not necessarily become flatter because of the steepening effect by porosity. We also discuss the implication of our results for the Milky Way extinction curve.

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arXiv2021

A simple numerical experiment on the dust temperature bias for Lyman break galaxies at $z\gtrsim 5$

Some studies suggest that the dust temperatures ($T_\mathrm{d}$) in high-redshift ($z\gtrsim 5$) Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) are high. However, possible observational bias in $T_\mathrm{d}$ is yet to be understood. Thus, we perform a simple test using random realizations of LBGs with various stellar masses, dust temperatures, and dust-to-stellar mass ratios, and examine how the sample detected by ALMA is biased in terms of $T_\mathrm{d}$. We show that ALMA tends to miss high-$T_\mathrm{d}$ objects even at total dust luminosity. LBGs are, however, basically selected by the stellar UV luminosity. The dust-temperature bias in a UV-selected sample is complicated because of the competing effects between high $T_\mathrm{d}$ and low dust abundance. For ALMA Band 6, there is no tendency of high-$T_\mathrm{d}$ LBGs being more easily detected in our experiment. Thus, we suggest that the observed trend of high $T_\mathrm{d}$ in $z\gtrsim 5$ LBGs is real. We also propose that the 450 $μ$m band is useful in further clarifying the dust temperatures. To overcome the current shallowness of 450 $μ$m observations, we examine a future Antarctic 30-m class telescope with a suitable atmospheric condition for wavelengths $\lesssim 450~μ$m, where the detection is not confusion-limited. We find that, with this telescope, an $L_\mathrm{IR}$-selected sample with $\log(L_\mathrm{IR}/\mathrm{L}_{\odot})>11$ is constructed for $z\gtrsim 5$, and detection in the intermediate-$M_\star$ (stellar mass) range [$9<\log (M_\star /M_{\odot})<9.5$] is much improved, especially at high $T_\mathrm{d}$.

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arXiv2021

Geometry effects on dust attenuation curves with different grain sources at high redshift

Dust has been detected in high-redshift ($z>5$) galaxies but its origin is still being debated. Dust production in high-redshift galaxies could be dominated by stellar production or by accretion (dust growth) in the interstellar medium. Previous studies have shown that these two dust sources predict different grain size distributions, which lead to significantly different extinction curves. In this paper, we investigate how the difference in the extinction curves affects the dust attenuation properties of galaxies by performing radiative transfer calculations. To examine the major effects of the dust--stars distribution geometry, we adopt two representative cases in spherical symmetry: the well-mixed geometry (stars and dust are homogeneously mixed) and the two-layer geometry (young stars are more concentrated in the centre). In both cases, we confirm that the attenuation curve can be drastically steepened by scattering and by different optical depths between young and old stellar populations, and can be flattened by the existence of unobscured stellar populations. We can reproduce similar attenuation curves even with very different extinction curves. Thus, we conclude that it is difficult to distinguish the dust sources only with attenuation curves. However, if we include information on dust emission and plot the IRX (infrared excess)--$β$ (ultraviolet spectral slope) relation, different dust sources predict different positions in the IRX--$β$ diagram. A larger $β$ is preferred under a similar IRX if dust growth is the dominant dust source.

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arXiv2021

Shattering as a source of small grains in the circum-galactic medium

Observed reddening in the circum-galactic medium (CGM) indicates a significant abundance of small grains, of which the origin is still to be clarified. We examine a possible path of small-grain production through shattering of pre-existing large grains in the CGM. Possible sites where shattering occurs on a reasonable time-scale are cool clumps with hydrogen number density $n_\mathrm{H}\sim 0.1$ cm$^{-3}$ and gas temperature $T_\mathrm{gas}\sim 10^4$ K, which are shown to exist through observations of Mg II absorbers. We calculate the evolution of grain size distribution in physical conditions appropriate for cool clumps in the CGM, starting from a large-grain-dominated distribution suggested from theoretical studies. With an appropriate gas turbulence model expected from the physical condition of cold clumps (maximum eddy size and velocity of $\sim$100 pc and 10 km s$^{-1}$, respectively), together with the above gas density and temperature and the dust-to-gas mass ratio inferred from observations (0.006), we find that small-grain production occurs on a time-scale (a few $\times 10^8$ yr) comparable to the lifetime of cool clumps derived in the literature. Thus, the physical conditions of the cool clouds are favrourable for small-grain production. We also confirm that the reddening becomes significant on the above time-scale. Therefore, we conclude that small-grain production by shattering is a probable cause for the observed reddening in the CGM. We also mention the effect of grain materials (or their mixtures) on the reddening at different redshifts (1 and 2).

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arXiv2021

Evolution of dust porosity through coagulation and shattering in the interstellar medium

The properties of interstellar grains, such as grain size distribution and grain porosity, are affected by interstellar processing, in particular, coagulation and shattering, which take place in the dense and diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), respectively. In this paper, we formulate and calculate the evolution of grain size distribution and grain porosity through shattering and coagulation. For coagulation, we treat the grain evolution depending on the collision energy. Shattering is treated as a mechanism of forming small compact fragments. The balance between these processes are determined by the dense-gas mass fraction $η_\mathrm{dense}$, which determines the time fraction of coagulation relative to shattering. We find that the interplay between shattering supplying small grains and coagulation forming porous grains from shattered grains is fundamentally important in creating and maintaining porosity. The porosity rises to 0.7--0.9 (or the filling factor 0.3--0.1) around grain radii $a\sim 0.1~μ$m. We also find that, in the case of $η_\mathrm{dense}=0.1$ (very efficient shattering with weak coagulation) porosity significantly enhances coagulation, creating fluffy submicron grains with filling factors lower than 0.1. The porosity enhances the extinction by 10--20 per cent at all wavelengths for amorphous carbon and at ultraviolet wavelengths for silicate. The extinction curve shape of silicate becomes steeper if we take porosity into account. We conclude that the interplay between shattering and coagulation is essential in creating porous grains in the interstellar medium and that the resulting porosity can impact the grain size distributions and extinction curves.

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arXiv2020

Evolution of the grain size distribution in Milky Way-like galaxies in post-processed IllustrisTNG simulations

We model dust evolution in Milky Way-like galaxies by post-processing the IllustrisTNG cosmological hydrodynamical simulations in order to predict dust-to-gas ratios and grain size distributions. We treat grain-size-dependent dust growth and destruction processes using a 64-bin discrete grain size evolution model without spatially resolving each galaxy. Our model broadly reproduces the observed dust--metallicity scaling relation in nearby galaxies. The grain size distribution is dominated by large grains at $z\gtrsim 3$ and the small-grain abundance rapidly increases by shattering and accretion (dust growth) at $z\lesssim 2$. The grain size distribution approaches the so-called MRN distribution at $z\sim 1$, but a suppression of large-grain abundances occurs at $z<1$. Based on the computed grain size distributions and grain compositions, we also calculate the evolution of the extinction curve for each Milky Way analogue. Extinction curves are initially flat at $z>2$, and become consistent with the Milky Way extinction curve at $z\lesssim 1$ at $1/λ< 6~\rm μm^{-1}$. However, typical extinction curves predicted by our model have a steeper slope at short wavelengths than is observed in the Milky Way. This is due to the low-redshift decline of gas-phase metallicity and the dense gas fraction in our TNG Milky Way analogues that suppresses the formation of large grains through coagulation.

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arXiv2020

Spectral energy distributions of dust and PAHs based on the evolution of grain size distribution in galaxies

Based on a one-zone evolution model of grain size distribution in a galaxy, we calculate the evolution of infrared spectral energy distribution (SED), considering silicate, carbonaceous dust, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The dense gas fraction ($η_\mathrm{dense}$) of the interstellar medium (ISM), the star formation time-scale ($τ_\mathrm{SF}$), and the interstellar radiation field intensity normalized to the Milky Way value ($U$) are the main parameters. We find that the SED shape generally has weak mid-infrared (MIR) emission in the early phase of galaxy evolution because the dust abundance is dominated by large grains. At an intermediate stage ($t\sim 1$ Gyr for $τ_\mathrm{SF}=5$ Gyr), the MIR emission grows rapidly because the abundance of small grains increases drastically by the accretion of gas-phase metals. We also compare our results with observational data of nearby and high-redshift ($z\sim 2$) galaxies taken by \textit{Spitzer}. We broadly reproduce the flux ratios in various bands as a function of metallicity. We find that small $η_\mathrm{dense}$ (i.e.\ the ISM dominated by the diffuse phase) is favoured to reproduce the 8 $μ$m intensity dominated by PAHs both for the nearby and the $z\sim 2$ samples. A long $τ_\mathrm{SF}$ raises the 8 $μ$m emission to a level consistent with the nearby low-metallicity galaxies. The broad match between the theoretical calculations and the observations supports our understanding of the grain size distribution, but the importance of the diffuse ISM for the PAH emission implies the necessity of spatially resolved treatment for the ISM.

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arXiv2020

The gas, metal and dust evolution in low-metallicity local and high-redshift galaxies

The chemical enrichment in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies is regulated by several physical processes: stellar evolution, grain formation and destruction, galactic inflows and outflows. Understanding such processes is essential to follow the chemical enrichment of galaxies through the cosmic epochs, and to interpret the observations. Despite the importance of such topics, the efficiency of the different processes driving the evolution of baryons in galaxies, remain controversial. We revise the current description of metal and dust evolution in local low-metallicity dwarf galaxies and we develop a description for Lyman Break Galaxies. Our main goal is to reproduce i) the peak in the mass of dust over the mass of stars (sMdust) observed within few hundred Myrs; ii) the decrease of the sMdust at later time. The spectral energy distribution of the galaxies is fitted with the "Code Investigating GALaxies Emission" (CIGALE), through which the stellar and dust masses, and the star formation rate are estimated. For some of the dwarf galaxies, the metal and gas content are also available. We run different calculations of chemical evolution in galaxies, and we fit the observed properties through the model predictions. We show that i) a top-heavy initial mass function that favours massive stars and a dust condensation fraction for Type II Supernovae (SNe II) of 50% or more help to reproduce the peak of sMdust observed after 100 Myrs since the beginning of the cycle; ii) galactic outflows play a crucial role in reproducing the decline in sMdust with age, and they are more efficient than grain destruction from SNe II; iii) a star formation efficiency (mass of gas converted into stars) of few per cent is required to explain the metallicity of local dwarf galaxies; iv) dust growth in the ISM is not necessary to reproduce the sMdust and, if present, its effect is erased by galactic outflows.

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arXiv2020

Effects of rotational disruption on the evolution of grain size distribution in galaxies

Interstellar dust grains can be spun up by radiative torques, and the resulting centrifugal force may be strong enough to disrupt large dust grains. We examine the effect of this rotational disruption on the evolution of grain size distribution in galaxies. To this goal, we modify our previous model by assuming that rotational disruption is the major small-grain production mechanism. We find that rotational disruption can have a large influence on the evolution of grain size distribution in the following two aspects especially for composites and grain mantles (with tensile strength $\sim 10^7$ erg cm$^{-3}$). First, because of the short time-scale of rotational disruption, the small-grain production occurs even in the early phase of galaxy evolution. Therefore, even though stars produce large grains, the abundance of small grains can be large enough to steepen the extinction curve. Secondly, rotational disruption is important in determining the maximum grain radius, which regulates the steepness of the extinction curve. For compact grains with tensile strength $\gtrsim 10^9$ erg cm$^{-3}$, the size evolution is significantly affected by rotational disruption only if the radiation field is as strong as (or the dust temperature is as high as) expected for starburst galaxies. For compact grains, rotational disruption predicts that the maximum grain radius becomes less than 0.2 $μ$m for galaxies with a dust temperature $\gtrsim 50$ K.

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arXiv2020

Self-consistent modelling of aromatic dust species and extinction curves in galaxy evolution

We formulate and calculate the evolution of dust in a galaxy focusing on the distinction among various dust components -- silicate, aromatic carbon, and non-aromatic carbon. We treat the galaxy as a one-zone object and adopt the evolution model of grain size distribution developed in our previous work. We further include aromatization and aliphatization (inverse reaction of aromatization). We regard small aromatic grains in a radius range of 3--50 Å as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We also calculate extinction curves in a consistent manner with the abundances of silicate and aromatic and non-aromatic carbonaceous dust. Our model nicely explains the PAH abundance as a function of metallicity in nearby galaxies. The extinction curve become similar to the Milky Way curve at age $\sim$ 10 Gyr, in terms of the carbon bump strength and the far-ultraviolet slope. We also apply our model to starburst galaxies by shortening the star formation time-scale (0.5 Gyr) and increasing the dense-gas fraction (0.9), finding that the extinction curve maintains bumpless shapes (because of low aromatic fractions), which are similar to the extinction curves observed in the Small Magellanic Cloud and high-redshift quasars. Thus, our model successfully explains the variety in extinction curve shapes at low and high redshifts.

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arXiv2019

Galaxy simulation with the evolution of grain size distribution

We compute the evolution of interstellar dust in a hydrodynamic simulation of an isolated disc galaxy. We newly implement the evolution of full grain size distribution by sampling 32 grid points on the axis of the grain radius. We solve it consistently with the chemical enrichment and hydrodynamic evolution of the galaxy. This enables us to theoretically investigate spatially resolved evolution of grain size distribution in a galaxy. The grain size distribution evolves from a large-grain-dominated ($\gtrsim 0.1~μ$m) phase to a small-grain production phase, eventually converging to a power-law-like grain size distribution similar to the so-called MRN distribution. We find that the small-grain abundance is higher in the dense ISM in the early epoch ($t\lesssim 1$ Gyr) because of efficient dust growth by accretion, while coagulation makes the small-grain abundance less enhanced in the dense ISM later. This leads to steeper extinction curves in the dense ISM than in the diffuse ISM in the early phase, while they show the opposite trend later. The radial trend is also described by faster evolution in the inner part. We also confirm that the simulation reproduces the observed trend in the relation between dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity, and in the radial gradients of dust-to-gas ratio and dust-to-metal ratio. Since the above change in the grain size distribution occurs at $t\sim 1$ Gyr, the age and density dependence of grain size distribution has a significant impact on the extinction curves even at high redshift.

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arXiv2019

Dust evolution in pre-stellar cores

Dust grains are the building {blocks} of future planets. They evolve in size, shape and composition during the life cycle of the interstellar medium. We seek to understand the process which leads from diffuse medium grains to dust grains in the vicinity of protostars inside disks. As a first step, we propose to characterize the dust evolution inside pre-stellar cores thanks to multi-wavelength observations. We will present how NIKA2 maps are crucial to better constrain dust properties and {we will} introduce SIGMA: a new flexible dust model in open access.

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arXiv2019

Expected dust grain size distributions in galaxies detected by ALMA at $z>7$

The dust properties in high-redshift galaxies provide clues to the origin of dust in the Universe. Although dust has been detected in galaxies at redshift $z>7$, it is difficult to constrain the dominant dust sources only from the total dust amount. Thus, we calculate the evolution of grain size distribution, expecting that different dust sources predict different grain size distributions. Using the star formation time-scale and the total baryonic mass constrained by the data in the literature, we calculate the evolution of grain size distribution. To explain the total dust masses in ALMA-detected $z>7$ galaxies, the following two solutions are possible: (i) high dust condensation efficiency in stellar ejecta, and (ii) efficient accretion (dust growth by accreting the gas-phase metals in the interstellar medium). We find that these two scenarios predict significantly different grain size distributions: in (i), the dust is dominated by large grains ($a\gtrsim 0.1~μ$m, where $a$ is the grain radius), while in (ii), the small-grain ($a\lesssim 0.01~μ$m) abundance is significantly enhanced by accretion. Accordingly, extinction curves are expected to be much steeper in (ii) than in (i). Thus, we conclude that extinction curves provide a viable way to distinguish the dominant dust sources in the early phase of galaxy evolution.

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arXiv2019

Modelling the evolution of PAH abundance in galaxies

We investigate the evolution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) abundance in a galaxy, which is a crucial step to understand the evolution of bright emission features in the mid-infrared range. We calculate the evolution of dust grain size distribution in a manner consistent with the physical conditions of the interstellar medium by post-processing our previous hydrodynamical simulation of an isolated disc galaxy. We also differentiate between aromatic and non-aromatic grains for carbonaceous dust species and explicitly considered the aromatization process. As a consequence, our model explains the metallicity dependence of PAH abundances in nearby galaxies well. The PAH abundance increase is driven particularly by the interplay between shattering and accretion (dust growth). The fast aromatization guarantees that the small carbonaceous grains trace PAHs very well. Since shattering and accretion are sensitive to the dust abundance, we predict that the PAH-to-dust abundance ratio increases as the metallicity increases. This is consistent with the observation data of nearby galaxies.

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arXiv2019

Radiation-pressure-driven dust transport to galaxy halos at $z\sim 10$

The origin of dust in galaxy halos or in the circum-galactic medium (CGM) is still a mystery. We investigate if the radiation pressure in high-redshift ($z\sim 10$) galaxies can efficiently transport dust to halos. To clarify the first dust enrichment of galaxy halos in the early Universe, we solve the motion of a dust grain considering radiation pressure, gas drag, and gravity in the vertical direction of the galactic disc. Radiation pressure is estimated in a consistent manner with the stellar spectra and dust extinction. As a consequence, we find that dust grains with radii $a\sim 0.1~μ$m successfully escape from the galactic disc if the ongoing star formation episode converts more than 15 per cent of the baryon content into stars and lasts $\gtrsim 30$ Myr, while larger and smaller grains are trapped in the disc because of gravity and gas drag, respectively. We also show that grain charge significantly enhances gas drag at a few--10 scale heights of the galactic disc, where the grain velocities are suppressed to $\sim 1$ km s$^{-1}$. There is an optimum dust-to-gas ratio ($\sim 10^{-3}$) in the galactic disc and an optimum virial mass $\sim 10^{10}$--$10^{11}$ M$_{\odot}$ for the transport of $a\sim 0.1~μ$m grains to the halo. We conclude that early dust enrichment of galaxy halos at $z\gtrsim 10$ is important for the origin of dust in the CGM.

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arXiv2019

Comparison of cosmological simulations and deep submillimetre galaxy surveys

Recent progress in submillimetre surveys by single-dish telescopes allows us to further challenge the consistency between cosmological simulations and observations. In particular, we compare our simulations that include dust formation and destruction with the recent SCUBA-2 surveys (`STUDIES') by putting emphases on basic observational properties of dust emission such as dust temperature, size of infrared (IR)-emitting region, IR luminosity function and IRX--$β$ relation. After confirming that our models reproduce the local galaxy properties, we examine the STUDIES sample at $z\approx 1-4$, finding that the simulation reproduces the aforementioned quantities except for the $z\gtrsim 2$ IR luminosity function at the massive end ($\sim 10^{13}$ L$_{\odot}$). This means that the current simulation correctly reproduces the overall scaling between the size and luminosity (or star formation rate) of dusty region, but lacks extreme starburst phenomena at $z\gtrsim 2$. We also discuss extinction curves and possible AGN contribution.

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