SPICA and the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies: The Rise of Metals and Dust

J. A. Fernández-Ontiveros (1) , L. Armus , M. Baes (2) , J. Bernard-Salas (3) , A. D. Bolatto , J. Braine (4) , L. Ciesla (5) , I. de Looze (2) , E. Egami (6) , J. Fischer (7) , M. Giard (8) , E. González-Alfonso , G. L. Granato (9) , C. Gruppioni (10) , M. Imanishi , D. Ishihara , H. Kaneda , S. Madden (5) , M. Malkan , H. Matsuhara , M. Matsuura (11) , T. Nagao (12) , F. Najarro , T. Nakagawa , T. Onaka , S. Oyabu (13) , M. Pereira-Santaella , I. Pérez Fournon , P. Roelfsema , P. Santini (14) , L. Da Silva (15) , J. -D. T. Smith , L. Spinoglio (16) , F. van Der Tak (17) , T. Wada , R. Wu

1 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
2 UGENT - Universiteit Gent = Ghent University
3 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
4 FORMATION STELLAIRE 2017
5 AIM (UMR7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112) - Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation
6 Steward Observatory
7 Fraunhofer HHI - Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications - Heinrich Hertz Institute
8 LBBE - Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive - UMR 5558
9 OAPD - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
10 OABO - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna
11 University of Manchester [Manchester]
12 RCSCE - Research Center for Space and Cosmic Evolution
13 Department of Environmental and Materials Engineering
14 OAR - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma
15 Universidade Federal de Itajubá = Federal University of Itajubá
16 ARENA - Antarctic Research a European Network for Astrophysics
17 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

The physical processes driving the chemical evolution of galaxies in the last $\sim 11\, \rm{Gyr}$ cannot be understood without directly probing the dust-obscured phase of star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei. This phase, hidden to optical tracers, represents the bulk of star formation and black hole accretion activity in galaxies at $1 < z < 3$. Spectroscopic observations with a cryogenic infrared (IR) observatory like SPICA will be sensitive enough to peer through the dust-obscured regions of galaxies and access the rest-frame mid- to far-IR range in galaxies at high-$z$. This wavelength range contains a unique suite of spectral lines and dust features that serve as proxies for the abundances of heavy elements and the dust composition, providing tracers with a feeble response to both extinction and temperature. In this work, we investigate how SPICA observations could be exploited to understand key aspects in the chemical evolution of galaxies: the assembly of nearby galaxies based on the spatial distribution of heavy element abundances, the global content of metals in galaxies reaching the knee of the luminosity function up to $z \sim 3$, and the dust composition of galaxies at high-$z$. Possible synergies with facilities available in the late 2020s are also discussed.

Domaines: Astrophysique galactique [astro-ph.GA]

J. A. Fernández-Ontiveros, L. Armus, M. Baes, J. Bernard-Salas, A. D. Bolatto, et al.. SPICA and the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies: The Rise of Metals and Dust. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 2017, 34, pp.id.e053. ⟨10.1017/pasa.2017.43⟩. ⟨hal-01613007⟩