An Empirical Determination of the Dust Mass Absorption Coefficient, $\kappa_{d}$, Using the Herschel Reference Survey

TL;DR

This study empirically determines the dust mass absorption coefficient at 500 μm using Herschel data, improving accuracy over previous estimates by accounting for systematic effects and using a consistent dust-to-metals ratio.

Contribution

The paper provides a more precise measurement of $$ at 500 μm, surpassing previous estimates by incorporating superior data and systematic corrections.

Findings

$$ at 500 μm is approximately 0.051 m^2/kg with quantified uncertainty.

No significant variation of $$ across different galaxies.

$$ shows no correlation with galaxy properties within the sample.

Abstract

We use the published photometry and spectroscopy of 22 galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey to determine that the value of the dust mass absorption coefficient $\kappa_{d}$ at a wavelength of 500 $\mu m$ is $\kappa_{500} = 0.051^{+0.070}_{-0.026}\,{\rm m^{2}\,kg^{-1}}$. We do so by taking advantage of the fact that the dust-to-metals ratio in the interstellar medium of galaxies appears to be constant. We argue that our value for $\kappa_{d}$ supersedes that of James et al. (2002) -- who pioneered this approach for determining $\kappa_{d}$ -- because we take advantage of superior data, and account for a number of significant systematic effects that they did not consider. We comprehensively incorporate all methodological and observational contributions to establish the uncertainty on our value, which represents a marked improvement on the oft-quoted 'order-of-magnitude' uncertainty on $\kappa_{d}$. We find no evidence that the value of $\kappa_{d}$ differs significantly between galaxies, or that it correlates with any other measured or derived galaxy properties. We note, however, that the availability of data limits our sample to relatively massive ($10^{9.7}<{M_{\star}}<10^{11.0}\ {\rm M_{\odot}}$), high metallicity ($8.61<[12+{\rm log}_{10}\frac{O}{H}]<8.86$) galaxies; future work will allow us to investigate a wider range of systems.