Deep 15um AKARI observations in the CDFS: estimating dust luminosities for a MIR-selected sample and for Lyman Break Galaxies and the evolution of L(dust)/L(UV) with the redshift

TL;DR

This study uses deep 15um AKARI observations in the CDFS to estimate dust luminosities for MIR-selected galaxies and Lyman Break Galaxies, analyzing the evolution of dust to UV luminosity ratios across redshifts.

Contribution

It evaluates the accuracy of 8um luminosity as a proxy for total dust luminosity and revises the dust/UV ratio evolution with redshift using new data.

Findings

8um luminosities are generally good estimates of L(dust)

Models explain the f(24)/f(15) ratio diversity reasonably well

The L(dust)/L(UV) ratio decreases more rapidly with redshift than previously thought

Abstract

Deep observations of the CDFS have been secured at 15um with AKARI/IRC infrared space telescope (ESA open time). From these observations, we define a sample of MIR-selected galaxies at 15um and we also obtain 15um flux densities for a sample of LBGs at z=1 already observed at 24um with Spitzer/MIPS. Number counts for the MIR-selected sample show a bump around a 15um flux density of 0.2mJy that can be attributed to galaxies at z>0.4 and at z>0.8 for the fainter part of the bump. This bump seems to be shifted as compared to other works and a possible origin can be the Cosmic variance. Thanks to this dataset, we have tested, on the two above samples at z=1, the validity of the conversions from monochromatic luminosities nu.f(nu) at a rest-frame wavelength of 8um by a comparison with total dust luminosities estimated from Spitzer rest-frame 12um data that we use as a reference. We find that the 8um dust luminosities are not all consistent and that some of them are better when compared to L(dust) evaluated from longer wavelength luminosities. We also find that the rest-frame 8um luminosities provide globally good estimates of L(dust). By comparing our data for the two samples to several libraries of SEDs, we find that models can explain the diversity of the observed f(24)/f(15) ratio quite reasonably for the MIR-selected sample and better for the LBG sample which are less dispersed than the MIR selection. However, when we analyse the luminosity dependence of this ratio, we find important discrepancies. Finally, we revisit the evolution of L(dust)/L(UV) ratio with the redshift z by re-calibrating previous L(dust) at z=2 based on our results and added new data points at higher redshifts. The decreasing trend is amplified as compared to the previous estimate.