Dust abundance and grain size in galaxy halos

TL;DR

This study combines observational data on dust in galaxy halos to constrain grain size and abundance, finding amorphous carbon grains of 0.01-0.03 micrometers fit observations well, unlike silicate grains.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on dust grain size and composition in galaxy halos by integrating reddening curves and cosmic extinction data.

Findings

Amorphous carbon grains of 0.01-0.03 micrometers are consistent with observations.

Silicate grains of 0.03 micrometers are inconsistent with combined data.

Dust abundance in halos may need to be higher than current estimates for silicate grains.

Abstract

We investigate the abundance and properties (especially, grain size) of dust in galaxy halos using available observational data in the literature. There are two major sets of data. One is (i) the reddening curves at redshifts $z\sim 1$ and 2 derived for Mg II absorbers, which are assumed to trace the medium in galaxy halos. The other is (ii) the cosmic extinction up to $z\sim 2$ mainly traced by distant background quasars. For (i), the observed reddening curves favor a grain radius of $a\sim 0.03~\mu$m for silicate, while graphite is not supported because of its strong 2175 \AA\ bump. Using amorphous carbon improves the fit to the reddening curves compared with graphite if the grain radius is $a\lesssim 0.03~\mu$m. For (ii), the cosmic extinction requires $\eta\gtrsim 10^{-2}$ ($\eta$ is the ratio of the halo dust mass to the stellar mass; the observationally suggested value is $\eta\sim 10^{-3}$) for silicate if $a\sim 0.03~\mu$m as suggested by the reddening curve constraint. Thus, for silicate, we do not find any grain radius that satisfies both (i) and (ii) unless the halo dust abundance is much larger than suggested by the observations. For amorphous carbon, in contrast, a wide range of grain radius ($a\sim 0.01$--0.3~$\mu$m) is accepted by the cosmic extinction; thus, we find that a grain radius range of $a\sim 0.01$--0.03 $\mu$m is supported by combining (i) and (ii). We also discuss the origin of dust in galaxy halos, focusing on the importance of grain size in the physical mechanism of dust supply to galaxy halos.