GOODS-HERSCHEL: evidence for a UV extinction bump in galaxies at z > 1

TL;DR

This study provides evidence for a UV extinction bump at 2175 A in galaxies at z > 1, affecting dust attenuation estimates and broad-band colour interpretations, with implications for understanding dust properties in early galaxies.

Contribution

First detection of a UV bump in high-redshift galaxies using multi-wavelength data and SED fitting, with an analytical attenuation curve including the bump.

Findings

The mean dust attenuation curve shows a UV bump at 2175 A with significant amplitude.

The attenuation curve is slightly steeper than the Calzetti law, within 1 sigma.

Presence of the bump causes systematic errors in UV slope-based dust attenuation estimates.

Abstract

Dust attenuation curves in external galaxies are useful to study their dust properties as well as to interpret their intrinsic spectral energy distributions. In particular the presence or absence of a UV bump at 2175 A remains an open issue which has consequences on the interpretation of broad band colours of distant galaxies. We study the dust attenuation curve in the UV range at z >1. In particular we search for the presence of a UV bump. We use deep photometric data of the CDFS obtained with intermediate and broad band filters by the MUSYC project to sample the UV rest-frame of galaxies with 1<z <2. Herschel/PACS and Spitzer/MIPS data are used to measure the dust emission. 30 galaxies were selected with high S/N in all bands. Their SEDs from the UV to the far-IR are fitted using the CIGALE code and the characteristics of the dust attenuation curve are obtained. The mean dust attenuation curve we derive exhibits a UV bump at 2175A whose amplitude corresponds to 35 % (76%) that of the MW (LMC2 supershell) extinction curve. An analytical expression of the average attenuation curve is given, it is found slightly steeper than the Calzetti et al. one, although at a 1 sigma level. Our galaxy sample is used to study the derivation of the slopes of the UV continuum from broad band colours, including the GALEX FUV-NUV colour. Systematic errors induced by the presence of the bump are quantified. We compare dust attenuation factors measured with CIGALE to the slope of the UV continuum and find that there is a large scatter around the relation valid for local starbursts (0.7 mag). The uncertainties on the determination of the UV slope lead to an extra systematic error of the order of 0.3 to 0.7 mag on dust attenuation when a filter overlaps the UV bump.