Astro2020: Unleashing the Potential of Dust Emission as a Window onto Galaxy Evolution

Christopher Clark, Julua Roman-Duval, Sarah Sadavoy, Simone Bianchi, Caroline Bot, Viviana Casasola, Jérémy Chastenet, Asantha Cooray, Pieter De Vis, Frédéric Galliano, Haley Gomez, Karl Gordon, Benne Holwerda, Kate Rowlands, Johannes Staguhn, Matthew Smith, Sébastien Viaene, Thomas Williams

Published 2019-03-15Version 1

We present the severe, systematic uncertainties currently facing our understanding of dust emission, which stymie our ability to truly exploit dust as a tool for studying galaxy evolution. We propose a program of study to tackle these uncertainties, describe the necessary facilities, and discuss the potential science gains that will result. This white paper was submitted to the US National Academies' Astro2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics.