Dust growth in the early Universe: insight from the NewCluster spin-off simulation

Abstract We investigate dust evolution in galaxies at z ∼ 5 using a spin-off run of the NewCluster cosmological zoom-in simulation with a live two-species, two-size dust model. We find that dust evolution follows three metallicity-dependent phases. At log (Z/Z⊙) < −1, dust is dominated by stellar ejecta and produces a shallow, featureless UV extinction curve whose normalized wavelength dependence is similar to that of the Calzetti attenuation law (Phase I). At −1 ≤ log (Z/Z⊙) < −0.5, efficient silicate accretion drives rapid dust growth, producing silicate-rich dust and SMC-like extinction curves (Phase II). At log (Z/Z⊙) ≥ −0.5, carbonaceous grain growth also becomes efficient, yielding a more balanced grain mixture and Milky-Way-like extinction curves (Phase III). In addition, local dust-to-metal ratios are strongly suppressed in regions affected by recent clustered supernova feedback, further complicating the interpretation of high-z observations. Despite some successes, our galaxies lie below current observationally inferred dust masses and dust-to-metal ratios for high-redshift galaxies. The resulting depletion patterns suggest that the fixed Fe-bearing olivine composition assumed in our current dust model may be too restrictive for chemically young galaxies, and that metallicity-dependent grain compositions may be required to explain the dust content of the early Universe.