The MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field Survey: Implications of the Lack of Evolution in the Dust Attenuation-Mass Relation to z ∼2

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between dust attenuation and stellar mass (M ∗) in star-forming galaxies over cosmic time. For this analysis, we compare measurements from the MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field survey at z ∼2.3 and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) at z ∼0, augmenting the latter optical data set with both UV Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and mid-infrared Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) photometry from the GALEX-SDSS-WISE Catalog. We quantify dust attenuation using both spectroscopic measurements of Hα and Hβ emission lines, and photometric measurements of the rest-UV stellar continuum. The Hα/Hβ ratio is used to determine the magnitude of attenuation at the wavelength of Hα, A Hα . Rest-UV colors and spectral energy distribution fitting are used to estimate A 1600, the magnitude of attenuation at a rest wavelength of 1600 Å. As in previous work, we find a lack of significant evolution in the relation between dust attenuation and M ∗ over the redshift range z ∼0 to z ∼2.3. Folding in the latest estimates of the evolution of M dust, (M dust/M gas), and gas surface density at fixed M ∗, we find that the expected M dust and dust mass surface density are both significantly higher at z ∼2.3 than at z ∼0. These differences appear at odds with the lack of evolution in dust attenuation. To explain the striking constancy in attenuation versus M ∗, it is essential to determine the relationship between metallicity and (M dust/M gas), the dust mass absorption coefficient and dust geometry, and the evolution of these relations and quantities from z ∼0 to z ∼2.3. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.