ISM dust feedback from low to high mass stars

TL;DR

This study evaluates the roles of low and high mass stars in dust feedback to the interstellar medium, considering different stellar mass distributions and evolutionary phases, highlighting their varying importance in different galactic environments.

Contribution

It provides a semi-empirical framework to quantify the dust feedback contributions of stars across different masses and evolutionary stages, comparing effects under different initial mass functions.

Findings

Massive stars dominate dust feedback with Salpeter IMF.

Low and intermediate mass stars are key in present-day galaxy dust replenishment.

Supernovae become dominant in high star formation rate environments.

Abstract

The dust component of the interstellar medium (ISM) has been extensively studied in the past decades. Late-type stars have been assumed as the main source of dust to the ISM, but recent observations show that supernova remnants may play a role on the ISM dust feedback. In this work, I study the importance of low and high mass stars, as well as their evolutionary phase, on the ISM dust feedback process. I also determine the changes on the obtained results considering different mass distribution functions and star formation history. We describe a semi-empirical calculation of the relative importance of each star at each evolutionary phase in the dust ejection to the ISM. I compare the obtained results for two stellar mass distribution functions, the classic Salpeter initial mass function and the present day mass function. I used the evolutionary track models for each stellar mass, and the empirical mass-loss rates and dust-to-gas ratio. The relative contribution of each stellar mass depends on the used distribution. Ejecta from massive stars represent the most important objects for the ISM dust replenishment using the Salpeter IMF. On the other hand, for the present day mass function low and intermediate mass stars are dominant. Late-type giant and supergiant stars dominate the ISM dust feedback in our actual Galaxy, but this may not the case of galaxies experiencing high star formation rates, or at high redshifts. In those cases, SNe are dominant in the dust feedback process.