High Gas Surface Densities yet Low UV Attenuation in z $\sim$ 1 Disc Galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the relationship between gas content, UV attenuation, and star formation in disc galaxies at z~1 compared to z~0, revealing high gas densities but similar attenuation properties when accounting for cloud filling factors.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the gas properties and attenuation geometries of z~1 galaxies, using IRX-$eta$ relations to estimate gas densities and compare them with CO measurements.

Findings

z~1 galaxies have higher gas filling factors than z~0.

Gas column densities are 3-6 times higher at z~1.

Attenuation properties are similar when accounting for filling factors.

Abstract

The gas in galaxies is both the fuel for star formation and a medium that attenuates the light of the young stars. We study the relations between UV attenuation, spectral slope, star formation rates, and molecular gas surface densities in a sample of 28 z$\sim$1 and a reference sample of 32 z$\sim$0 galaxies that are detected in CO, far-infrared, and rest frame UV. The samples are dominated by disc-like galaxies close to the main SFR--mass relation. We find that the location of the z$\sim$1 galaxies on the IRX-$\beta$ plane is correlated with their gas-depletion time-scale $\tau_{dep}$ and can predict $\tau_{dep}$ with a standard deviation of 0.16 dex. We use IRX-$\beta$ to estimate the mean total gas column densities at the locations of star formation in the galaxies, and compare them to the mean molecular gas surface densities as measured from CO. We confirm previous results regarding high $N_H/A_V$ in z$\sim$1 galaxies. We estimate an increase in the gas filling factor by a factor of 4--6 from z$\sim$0 to z$\sim$1 and a corresponding increase of factor 3--2 in the mean column densities of the star forming clouds. After accounting for the filling factor, the z$\sim$1 and the z$\sim$0 samples exhibit similar attenuation properties. These indicate to similar porous geometries to the molecular clouds in star-forming disc galaxies at 0<z<1.