REBELS-IFU: dust build-up in massive galaxies at redshift 7

Algera, HSB ORCID: 0000-0002-4205-9567, Rowland, L ORCID: 0009-0009-2671-4160, Stefanon, M ORCID: 0000-0001-7768-5309, Palla, M ORCID: 0000-0002-3574-9578, Sommovigo, L ORCID: 0000-0002-2906-2200, Inami, H ORCID: 0000-0003-4268-0393, Bouwens, R, Aravena, M, Bowler, RAA ORCID: 0000-0003-3917-1678, Dayal, P ORCID: 0000-0001-8460-1564, De Looze, I ORCID: 0000-0001-9419-6355, Ferrara, A, Fisher, R ORCID: 0009-0008-3946-0502, Graziani, L ORCID: 0000-0002-9231-1505, Gulis, C, Heintz, K ORCID: 0000-0002-9389-7413, Hodge, J, Laza-Ramos, A, Van Leeuwen, I ORCID: 0009-0005-6803-6805, Pallottini, A ORCID: 0000-0002-7129-5761 et al (2025) REBELS-IFU: dust build-up in massive galaxies at redshift 7. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 545 (2). ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

In recent years, observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have started to map out the rapid metal enrichment of the early Universe, while (sub)millimetre observations have simultaneously begun to reveal the ubiquity of dust beyond z ≳ 6. However, the pathways that led to the assembly of early dust reservoirs remain poorly quantified, and require pushing our understanding of key scaling relations between dust, gas, and metals into the early Universe. We investigate the dust build-up in twelve 6.5 ≲ z ≲ 7.7 galaxies drawn from the Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey (REBELS) that benefit from (i) JWST/NIRSpec strong-line metallicity measurements, (ii) Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) [Cii]-based redshifts and gas masses, and (iii) dust masses from single- or multi-band ALMA continuum observations. Combining these measurements, we investigate the dust-to-gas (DtG), dust-to-metal (DtM), and dust-to-stellar mass (DtS) ratios of our sample as a function of metallicity. While our analysis is limited by systematic uncertainties related to the [Cii]-to-H<inf>2</inf> conversion factor and dust temperature, we explore a wide range of possible values, and carefully assess their impact on our results. Under a fiducial set of assumptions, we find an average log(DtG) = -3.02 ± 0.23, only slightly below that of local metal-rich galaxies. On the other hand, at fixed metallicity our average log(DtS) = -2.15 ± 0.42 is significantly larger than that of low-redshift galaxies. Finally, through a comparison to various theoretical models of high-redshift dust production, we find that assembling the dust reservoirs in massive galaxies at z ≈ 7 likely requires the combination of rapid supernova enrichment and efficient interstellar medium dust growth.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	galaxies: evolution; galaxies: high-redshift; submillimetre: galaxies; 5109 Space Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 5109 Space Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5107 Particle and high energy physics; 5109 Space sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date of acceptance:	29 October 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access:	10 June 2026
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2026 14:33
Last Modified:	10 Jun 2026 14:33
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/staf1897
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28804

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