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 H α and H β emission lines, and photometric measurements of the rest-UV stellar continuum. The H α /H β ratio is used to determine the magnitude of attenuation at the wavelength of H α , A H α . 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.