On the Origin of Dust in Galaxy Clusters at low to intermediate redshift

Eda Gjergo, Francesca Matteucci, Marco Palla, Elena Lacchin, Andrea Biviano

Published 2019-07-12Version 1

We compute the evolution of dust in galaxy clusters by integrating over luminosity functions the dust abundances obtained via chemical evolution models. We differentiate contributions from three galactic morphologies: elliptical, spiral, and dwarf irregular. We implement comprehensive dust evolution models that predict the total amount of dust produced and ejected into the intracluster medium by galaxies. We then integrate the galactic dust over luminosity functions in order to obtain the total dust mass in a given cluster. In addition to considering stellar dust production, accretion and destruction by supernova shocks in the interstellar medium of galaxies, we apply thermal sputtering to the intracluster dust. The model results are compared to low-to-intermediate redshift dust observations. Early-type galaxies, which are the most abundant galaxies in clusters, contribute negligibly to the present-time intracluster dust. On the other hand, we predict that dust masses -- both the bulk of spatially-unresolved dust and of the dust ejected into the intracluster medium -- originate from late-type galaxies. We predict a total dust content in galaxy clusters is between $10^{-6}$ and $10^{-4}$ of the total gas mass, depending on whether the galactic component is excluded or not. This result is consistent with statistics from higher redshift clusters. Furthermore, if we allow for Type Ia supernova dust production within early-type galaxies, we find that even in the extreme dust production case, the contribution to dust from early-type galaxies would still be a negligible fraction of the intracluster dust mass.