Observed dust surface density across cosmic times

Abstract

Our ability to interpret observations of galaxies and trace their stellar, gas, and dust content over cosmic time critically relies on our understanding of how the dust abundance and properties vary with environment. Here, we compute the dust surface density across cosmic times to put novel constraints on simulations of the build-up of dust. We provide observational estimates of the dust surface density consistently measured through depletion methods across a wide range of environments, going from the Milky Way up to z = 5.5 galaxies. These conservative measurements provide complementary estimates to extinction-based observations. In addition, we introduce the dust surface density distribution function - in analogy with the cold gas column density distribution functions. We fit a power law of the form log f(Σ_Dust) = -1.92 × log Σ_Dust - 3.65, which proves slightly steeper than that for neutral gas and metal absorbers. This observed relation, which can be computed by simulations predicting resolved dust mass functions through 2D projection, provides new constraints on modern dust models.