Can planet formation resolve the dust budget crisis in high redshift galaxies?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether incorporating planet formation processes into galaxy chemical evolution models can help resolve the dust budget crisis observed in high redshift galaxies, suggesting a partial solution through dust retention and liberation mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach by integrating planet formation phases into galaxy chemical evolution models to address the dust deficit problem.

Findings

Including planet formation increases dust mass predictions by 30-50%.

Dust retention in circumstellar discs reduces dust loss during star formation.

Dust is more likely to be expelled via jets and winds than incorporated into planets.

Abstract

The process of planet formation offers a rich source of dust production via grain growth in protostellar discs, and via grinding of larger bodies in debris disc systems. Chemical evolution models, designed to follow the build up of metals and dust in galaxies, do not currently account for planet formation. We consider the possibility that the apparent under-prediction of dust mass in high redshift galaxies by chemical evolution models could be in part, due to these models neglecting this process, specifically due to their assumption that a large fraction of the dust mass is removed from the interstellar medium during star formation (so-called astration). By adding a planet formation phase into galaxy chemical evolution, we demonstrate that the dust budget crisis can be partially ameliorated by a factor of 1.3-1.5 only if a) circumstellar discs prevent a large fraction of the dust mass entering the star during its birth, and b) that dust mass is preferentially liberated via jets, winds and outflows rather than accreted into planetary-mass bodies.