A panchromatic view of N2CLS GOODS-N: The evolution of the dust cosmic density since z ∼ 7

¹ Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), 300 Rue de la Piscine, 38400 Saint-Martin-d’Hères, France
² Aix Marseille Univ., CNRS, CNES, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille), Marseille, France
³ Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, France
⁴ School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queen’s Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
⁵ Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁶ Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), Avenida Divina Pastora 7, Local 20, E-18012 Granada, Spain
⁷ Institut Néel, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, 25 Av. des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
⁸ Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, UMR 7550, 67000 Strasbourg, France
⁹ Astronomy Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
¹⁰ Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LPSC-IN2P3, 53, Avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
¹¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy
¹² Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
¹³ Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), School of Astronomy, Tehran, Iran
¹⁴ Physics Department “Ettore Pancini”, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”, Via Cintia 21, I-80126 Napoli, Italy
¹⁵ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
¹⁶ National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, Ioannou Metaxa and Vasileos Pavlou, GR-15236 Athens, Greece
¹⁷ Department of Astrophysics, Astronomy & Mechanics, Faculty of Physics, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, GR-15784 Zografos, Athens, Greece
¹⁸ High Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439, USA
¹⁹ LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, UPMC, 75014 Paris, France
²⁰ Institute of Space Sciences (ICE), CSIC, Campus UAB, Carrer de Can Magrans s/n, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain
²¹ ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, Barcelona, Spain
²² Joint ALMA Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, 763-0355 Santiago, Chile
²³ European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla, 19001 Santiago de Chile, Chile
²⁴ IRAP, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNES, UT3-UPS, Toulouse, France
²⁵ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
²⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Roma, Italy
²⁷ Laboratoire de Physique de l’École Normale Supérieure, ENS, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, 75005 Paris, France
²⁸ Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS (UMR7095), 98 Bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
²⁹ University of Lyon, UCB Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, IP2I, 69622 Villeurbanne, France
³⁰ Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Chemin Pegasi 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland

^⋆ Corresponding author; berta@iram.fr

Received: 5 November 2024
Accepted: 27 February 2025

Abstract

To understand early star formation, it is essential to determine the dust mass budget of high-redshift galaxies. Sub-millimeter rest-frame emission, dominated by cold dust, is an unbiased tracer of dust mass. The New IRAM KID Arrays 2 (NIKA2) conducted a deep blank field survey at 1.2 and 2.0 mm in the GOODS-N field as part of the NIKA2 Cosmological Legacy Survey (N2CLS), detecting 65 sources with S/N ≥ 4.2. Thanks to a dedicated interferometric program with NOEMA and other high-angular resolution data, we identified the multi-wavelength counterparts of these sources and resolved them into 71 individual galaxies. We built detailed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and assigned a redshift to 68 of them over the range 0.6 < z < 7.2. We fit these SEDs using modified blackbody and Draine & Li (2007, ApJ, 657, 810) models and the panchromatic approaches MAGPHYS, CIGALE, and SED3FIT, thus deriving their dust mass (M_dust), infrared luminosity (L_IR), and stellar mass (M_⋆). Eight galaxies require an active galactic nucleus torus component, and another six require an unextinguished young stellar population. A significant fraction of our galaxies are classified as starbursts based on their position on the M_⋆ versus star formation rate plane or their depletion timescales. We computed the dust mass function in three redshift bins (1.6 < z ≤ 2.4, 2.4 < z ≤ 4.2 and 4.2 < z ≤ 7.2) and determined the Schechter function that best describes it. The dust cosmic density, ρ_dust, increases by at least an order of magnitude from z ∼ 7 to z ∼ 1.5, as predicted by theoretical works. At lower redshifts, the evolution flattens. Nonetheless, significant differences exist between results obtained with different selections and methods. The superb GOODS-N data set enabled a systematic investigation into the dust properties of distant galaxies. N2CLS holds promise for combining these deep field findings with the wide COSMOS field into a self-consistent analysis of dust in galaxies both near and far.