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Observations of high-redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe~Ia) are used to study the cosmic transparency at optical wavelengths. Assuming a flat $\Lambda$CDM cosmological model based on BAO and CMB results, redshift dependent deviations of SN~Ia distances are used to constrain mechanisms that would dim light. The analysis is based on the most recent Pantheon SN compilation, for which there is a $0.03\pm0.01 {\textrm \,(\rm stat)}$ mag discrepancy in the distant supernova distance moduli relative to the $\Lambda$CDM model anchored by supernovae at $z, Comment: Letter accepted for publication in MNRAS

Recent ALMA observations of high-redshift normal galaxies have been providing a great opportunity to clarify the general origin of dust in the Universe, not biased to very bright special objects even at $z>6$. To clarify what constraint we can get for the dust enrichment in normal galaxies detected by ALMA, we use a theoretical model that includes major processes driving dust evolution in a galaxy; that is, dust condensation in stellar ejecta, dust growth by the accretion of gas-phase metals, and supernova destruction. Using the dust emission fluxes detected in two normal galaxies at $z>6$ by ALMA as a constraint, we can get the range of the time-scales (or efficiencies) of the above mentioned processes. We find that if we assume extremely high condensation efficiency in stellar ejecta ($f_{\mathrm{in}} \ga 0.5$), rapid dust enrichment by stellar sources in the early phase may be enough to explain the observed ALMA flux, unless dust destruction by supernovae in those galaxies is stronger than that in nearby galaxies. If we assume a condensation efficiency expected from theoretical calculations ($f_{\mathrm{in}} \la 0.1$), strong dust growth (even stronger than assumed for nearby galaxies if they are metal-poor galaxies) is required. These results indicate that the normal galaxies detected by ALMA at $z>6$ are biased to objects (i) with high dust condensation efficiency in stellar ejecta, (ii) with strong dust growth in very dense molecular clouds, or (iii) with efficient dust growth because of fast metal enrichment up to solar metallicity. A measurement of metallicity is crucial to distinguish among these possibilities.

Although dust content is usually assumed to depend uniquely on metallicity, recent observations of two extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxies have suggested that this may not always be true. At a similar oxygen abundance of ~ 3% Zsun, the dust-to-gas and dust-to-stellar mass ratios in SBS 0335-052 and IZw 18 differ by a factor 40-70 according to including molecular gas or excluding it. Here we investigate a possible reason for this dramatic difference through models based on a semi-analytical formulation of chemical evolution including dust. Results suggest that the greater dust mass in SBS 0335-052 is due to the more efficient grain growth allowed by the high density in the cold interstellar medium (ISM), observationally inferred to be almost 20 times higher than in IZw 18. Our models are able to explain the difference in dust masses, suggesting that efficient dust formation and dust content in galaxies, including those with the highest measured redshifts, depend sensitively on the ISM density, rather than only on metallicity., 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in MNRAS

We present a detailed analysis of an astrophysical mechanism that generates cosmological magnetic fields during the Epoch of Reionization. It is based on the photoionization of the Intergalactic Medium by the first sources formed in the Universe. First the induction equation is derived, then the characteristic length and time scales of the mechanism are identified, and finally numerical applications are carried out for first stars, primordial galaxies and distant powerful quasars. In these simple examples, the strength of the generated magnetic fields varies between the order of $10^{-23}$ G on hundreds of kiloparsecs to $10^{-19}$ G on hundreds of parsecs in the neutral Intergalactic Medium between the Str\"omgren spheres of the sources. Thus this mechanism contributes to the premagnetization of the whole Universe before large scale structures are in place. It operates with any ionizing source, at any time during the Epoch of Reionization. Finally, the generated fields possess a characteristic spatial configuration which may help discriminate these seeds from those produced by different mechanisms., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS

Recent works have demonstrated a surprisingly small variation of the dust-to-metals ratio in different environments and a correlation between dust extinction and the density of stars. Naively, one would interpret these findings as strong evidence of cosmic dust being produced mainly by stars. But other observational evidence suggest there is a significant variation of the dust-to-metals ratio with metallicity. As we demonstrate in this paper, a simple star-dust scenario is problematic also in the sense that it requires that destruction of dust in the interstellar medium (e.g., due to passage of supernova shocks) must be highly inefficient. We suggest a model where stellar dust production is indeed efficient, but where interstellar dust growth is equally important and acts as a replenishment mechanism which can counteract the effects of dust destruction. This model appears to resolve the seemingly contradictive observations, given that the ratio of the effective (stellar) dust and metal yields is not universal and thus may change from one environment to another, depending on metallicity., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We use the Galaxies-Intergalactic Medium Interaction Calculation (GIMIC) cosmological hydrodynamic simulation at z=0 to study the distribution and environmental dependence of neutral hydrogen (HI) gas in the outskirts of simulated galaxies. This gas can currently be probed directly in, for example, Ly$\alpha$ absorption via the observation of background quasars. Radio facilities, such as the Square Kilometre Array, will provide a complementary probe of the diffuse HI in emission and will constrain the physics underpinning the complex interplay between accretion and feedback mechanisms which affect the intergalactic medium. We extract a sample of 488 galaxies from a re-simulation of the average cosmic density GIMIC region. We estimate the neutral hydrogen content of these galaxies and the surrounding intergalactic medium within which they reside. We investigate the average HI radial profiles by stacking the individual profiles according to both mass and environment. We find high HI column densities at large impact parameters in group environments and markedly lower HI densities for non-group galaxies. We suggest that these results likely arise from the combined effects of ram pressure stripping and tidal interactions present in group environments., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, MNRAS accepted

We develop a dust efflux model of radiation pressure acting on dust grains which successfully reproduces the relation between stellar mass, dust opacity and star formation rate observed in local star-forming galaxies. The dust content of local star-forming galaxies is set by the competition between the physical processes of dust production and dust loss in our model. The dust loss rate is proportional to the dust opacity and star formation rate. Observations of the relation between stellar mass and star formation rate at several epochs imply that the majority of local star-forming galaxies are best characterized as having continuous star formation histories. Dust loss is a consequence of sustained interaction of dust with the radiation field generated by continuous star formation. Dust efflux driven by radiation pressure rather than dust destruction offers a more consistent physical interpretation of the dust loss mechanism. By comparing our model results with the observed relation between stellar mass, dust extinction and star formation rate in local star-forming galaxies we are able to constrain the timescale and magnitude of dust loss. The timescale of dust loss is long and therefore dust is effluxed in a "Slow Flow". Dust loss is modest in low mass galaxies but massive galaxies may lose up to 70~80% of their dust over their lifetime. Our Slow Flow model shows that mass loss driven by dust opacity and star formation may be an important physical process for understanding normal star-forming galaxy evolution., 17 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Unless properly corrected for, the existence of intergalactic dust will introduce a redshift dependent magnitude offset to standard candle sources. This would lead to overestimated luminosity distances compared to a dust-free universe and bias the cosmological parameter estimation as derived from, e.g., Type Ia supernovae observations. In this paper, we model the optical extinction and X-ray scattering properties of intergalactic dust grains to constrain the intergalactic opacity using a combined analysis of observed quasar colours and the soft X-ray background. Quasar colours effectively constrain the amount of intergalactic dust grains smaller than ~0.2 microns, to the point where we expect the corresponding systematic error in the Type Ia supernova magnitude-redshift relation to be sub-dominant. Soft X-ray background observations are helpful in improving the constraints on very large dust grains for which the amount of optical reddening is very small and therefore is more difficult to correct for. Our current upper limit corresponds to ~0.25 magnitude dimming at optical wavelengths for a source at redshift z = 1, which is too small to alleviate the need for dark energy but large in terms of relative error. However, we expect it to be possible to lower this bound considerably with an improved understanding of the possible sources of the X-ray background, in combination with observations of compact X-ray sources such as Active Galactic Nuclei.

Using a cosmological simulation at redshift 5, we find that the baryon-rich cores of intergalactic filaments extending outwards from galaxies commonly form isothermal gas cylinders in regions favourable to their formation. The central gas density is typically about 500 times the cosmic mean total density, and the temperature is typically 1–2 × 104 K, just above the Lyman α cooling floor. These findings argue that the hydrodynamic properties of the gas are more important than the dark matter in determining this structure. It is noteworthy that the temperature and ionization state of the gas completely determine a finite total mass per unit length of an isothermal cylinder. Our findings may have implications for understanding the ‘cold-mode’ mechanism of gas transport into galaxies.

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) produce a dominant fraction (~80%) of the Soft X-ray background (SXB) at photon energies 0.5, Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

We have constructed a numerical model of a galaxy that consists of a stellar, gas and dust disc imbedded within a dark halo. We have used this model to assess the radiation, gravitational and viscous forces on dust grains and to trace their motion through the interstellar medium over a period of 10(9) yr. We conclude that the disc opacity is a crucial factor in understanding the motion of the grains. Large grains (≈0.1 μm) with low disc opacity will lead to dust expulsion from the stellar disc, while high opacity leads to dust retention. Reasonable disc opacities lead to the recycling of the larger grains from the outer to the inner regions of the galaxy. The larger grains travel at higher velocities than small grains (0.01−0.001 μm), and so the smaller grains remain relatively close to their formation sites. Dust can ‘leak’ out over the entire surface of the disc because of the imbalance of radiation and gravitational forces. The dust is dynamically coupled to the gas and so although the gas lags behind the dust it is carried along with it. This explains the close correlation between the far-infrared emission from dust and the gas column density. We use a simple analytical model to show how the dust mass of a galaxy may evolve with time and how a significant fraction (90 per cent) of the total dust mass produced may have been expelled into the intergalactic medium.

We show that despite the large uncertainty in the absolute dust masses of galaxies, it is possible to calculate the ratio of the dust masses of galaxies at different redshifts with acceptable accuracy as long as the dust masses are estimated from submillimetre fluxes measured at the same rest-frame wavelength. If one assumes that the same fraction of the metals in a galaxy is always incorporated in dust, for which there is some observational evidence, then it is possible to use standard chemical evolution models to estimate how the mass of dust in a galaxy should change with time. Our models show that dust mass is a poor 'galactic clock', because the variation with time depends critically on whether galactic evolution is best represented by a closed-box, inflow or outflow model. Nevertheless, the high dust masses of the high-redshift objects from which submillimetre dust emission has recently been observed do place significant limits on galactic evolution/cosmology. In an no = 1 universe it is possible to reproduce the high dust masses only with the outflow models and with the high-redshift objects being the ancestors of the most massive galaxies in the local Universe. If we live in a low-density universe, it is not possible to reproduce the dust masses with our dust-evolution models, and either one or more of our assumptions must be radically wrong, or gravitational lensing must be amplifying the submillimetre fluxes, and hence the dust masses, or there must be a component of dust in galaxies which is hot at high redshift but which in nearby galaxies is so cold that its presence cannot be detected even at submillimetre wavelengths. We also show that submillimetre observations of galaxies at both high and low redshifts are beginning to put interesting limits on the processes that form dust.

A search for millimetric continuum emission from eight optically-selected, radio-quiet quasars and a radiogalaxy with 3.7 < z < 4.3, has been undertaken using a highly sensitive 7-channel bolometer on the IRAM 30-m Millimetre Radio Telescope. Detections of a potentially dust-rich quasar, and of 8C1435+635, the most distant known radiogalaxy, are reported. An extrapolation of the steepening centimetric radio spectrum of 8C1435+635 accounts for less than one per cent of the observed 1.25-mm flux density, indicating that the emission is most likely from warm dust, although the present data cannot discriminate against synchrotron emission. If the emission is thermal, then the derived dust mass lies in the range, 2E9 < M(dust) < 8E7 Solar for 20 < T(dust) < 100K, or M(dust) ~ 1.6E8 Solar for T(dust) = 60K, similar to that derived for 4C41.17, suggesting a molecular gas mass of between 4E10 and 9E11 Solar. The quasar, PC2047+0123 at z=3.80, has no detectable centimetric emission and the 1.25-mm continuum detected here probably also originates from ~ 1.5E8 Solar masses of dust (again for T(dust) = 60K). Upper limits have been obtained for four quasars, corresponding to dust mass limits of around 3 sigma < 2E8 Solar; less useful limits have been set for a further three quasars., 4 pages; 1 figure; text as compressed ps file at http://www.roe.ac.uk/research/dust.ps.Z; figure as compressed ps file at http://www.roe.ac.uk/research/8c.ps.Z

We study the extinction properties of dust in the well-defined dust lanes of four highly inclined galaxies, using U-, B-, V-, R- and I-band CCD and J- and K'-band near-infrared array images. For three of these galaxies, we could use the symmetry of the underlying light profile to obtain absolute extinction values in the dust lanes. Maximum values for the dust extinction near the centres of the galaxies range between 2 and 3 mag in B; this extinction falls rapidly with radius away from the galactic centres. We study the extinction law in these three galaxies by investigating the extinction ratios A(lambda)/A(V), finding good agreement with the extinction law in our Galaxy and in the Sombrero galaxy (NGC 4594). We fit the observations using different models of dust distribution: with a screen of dust in front of the stellar sources, and with the dust uniformly mixed with the stars, discussing also the effects of scattered and parasitic light. We find that the observational results are consistent with a universal law for dust extinction in the visible and near-infrared ranges.

We report a submillimetre-wavelength search for thermal emission from cold dust in the centres of rich clusters of galaxies with cooling flows. No convincing example of emission by dust is found in the 11 clusters surveyed. The upper limits to the dust mass are of order 10 8 M ○. . The corresponding limits to the mass of cold gas are of order 10 10 M ○. , assuming the Galactic ratio of gas to dust mass

Measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation by COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) limit the line integral of the electron pressure in intergalactic gas out to cosmological distances. The internal physical properties of diffuse bridges in the lobes of giant radio galaxies are also expected to reflect directly the pressure in this intergalactic medium that forms the environment of the radio structure. Surprisingly, the COBE limits rule out an intergalactic medium with the pressure indicated by the radio structures. This suggests that these regions are not thermally confined

Recently Menard et al. detected a subtle but systematic change in the mean color of quasars as a function of their projected separation from foreground galaxies, extending to comoving separations of ~10Mpc/h, which they interpret as a signature of reddening by intergalactic dust. We present theoretical models of this remarkable observation, using SPH cosmological simulations of a (50Mpc/h)^3 volume. Our primary model uses a simulation with galactic winds and assumes that dust traces the intergalactic metals. The predicted galaxy-dust correlation function is similar in form to the galaxy-mass correlation function, and reproducing the MSFR data requires a dust-to-metal mass ratio of 0.24, about half the value in the Galactic ISM. Roughly half of the reddening arises in dust that is more than 100Kpc/h from the nearest massive galaxy. We also examine a simulation with no galactic winds, which predicts a much smaller fraction of intergalactic metals (3% vs. 35%) and therefore requires an unphysical dust-to-metal ratio of 2.18 to reproduce the MSFR data. In both models, the signal is dominated by sightlines with E(g-i)=0.001-0.1. The no-wind simulation can be reconciled with the data if we also allow reddening to arise in galaxies up to several x 10^10 Msun. The wind model predicts a mean visual extinction of A_V ~0.0133 mag out to z=0.5, with a sightline-to-sightline dispersion similar to the mean, which could be significant for future supernova cosmology studies. Reproducing the MSFR results in these simulations requires that a large fraction of ISM dust survive its expulsion from galaxies and its residence in the intergalactic medium. Future observational studies that provide higher precision and measure the dependence on galaxy type and environment will allow detailed tests for models of enriched galactic outflows and the survival of IG dust.

Supernova measurements have become a key ingredient in current determinations of cosmological parameters. These sources can however be used as standard candles only after correcting their apparent brightness for a number of effects. In this paper we discuss some limitations imposed by the formalism currently used for such corrections and investigate the impact on cosmological constraints. We show that color corrections are, in general, expected to be biased. In addition, color excesses which do not add a significant scatter to the observed SN brightnesses affect the value of cosmological parameters but leave the slope of the color-luminosity relation unchanged. We quantify these biases in the context of the redshift-dependent dust extinction suggested by the recent detection of intergalactic dust by Menard et al. (2009). Using a range of models for the opacity of the Universe as a function of redshift, we find that color-magnitude-stretch scaling relations are virtually insensitive to the presence of cosmic dust while cosmological parameters such as Omega_M and w are biased at the level of a few percent, i.e. offsets comparable to the current statistical errors. Future surveys will be able to limit the impact of intergalactic extinction by observing at larger wavelengths. In addition such datasets will provide direct detections of intergalactic dust by cross-correlating SN colors and the density of foreground galaxies, which can be used as a consistency check on the cosmic dust extinction correction. Alternatively, such biases could be avoided by correcting the colors of supernovae on an object-by-object basis with accurate photometry.

Figure 3. Two-point correlation function of C IV (upper panel) and Si IV (lower panel) absorption components. In each panel the components have been divided into two redshifts bins, with symbols as in Fig. 1. The upper panel also includes a number of comparisons with previous measurements. In particular: the lower set of crosses corresponds to the full set of components defined in BSR03, normalizing each QSO individually; the upper set of crosses corresponds to imposing a column density cut of 10 cm, normalizing each QSO by its expected number of pairs; and the solid lines correspond to dividing the BSR03 data into subsamples with z 3.1 (lower line) and z < 3.1 (upper line), as described in the text. In the lower panel, the crosses correspond to imposing a column density cut of 10 cm on the Si IV components observed in BSR03 and normalizing each QSO by its expected number of pairs.

The imaging capabilities of the Exosat and Einstein satellites at soft X-ray wavelengths have begun to show that suitable Galactic X-ray sources have extended (∼ 10 arcmin) haloes due to scattering of soft X-rays by interstellar dust. A simple argument suggests that similar haloes, due to scattering by intergalactic dust, should exist around distant (z ∼ 1) quasars and detailed analysis confirms this conclusion. A search for such haloes around suitable X-ray quasars could provide valuable, model-independent, constraints on the amount and origin of intergalactic dust.

Infrared and spectroscopic observations of hot stars in clusters, groups, and the field are interpreted. Their circumstellar dust shells are found to have greater inner radii for the hotter stars, so that the stellar and dust temperatures are anti-correlated. There is also evidence that the hotter forbidden-line stars have thicker dust shells. The time scale for dispersion of dust by radiation pressure or stellar winds precludes the dust being primeval. The best explanations for the observed correlations invoke the formation of dust in density inhomogeneities and its destruction by sputtering or ultraviolet radiation. However, around all the stars in the sample examined the zones of grain growth must have had similar density. (auth)