Dusty star-forming galaxies physical properties

We demonstrate that M_dust_/M* in starbursts reflects the increase in molecular gas fraction with redshift, and attains the highest values for sources with the most compact dusty star-formation. The state-of-the-art cosmological simulations that include self-consistent dust growth, broadly reproduce the evolution of M_dust_/M* in main sequence galaxies, but underestimate it in starbursts. The latter is found to be linked to lower gas-phase metallicities and longer dust growth timescales relative to observations.

Phenomenological models based on the main-sequence/starburst dichotomy and analytical models that include recipes for rapid metal enrichment are consistent with our observations. Therefore, our results strongly suggest that high M_dust_/M* is due to rapid dust grain growth in metal enriched interstellar medium. This work highlights multifold benefits of using M_dust_/M* as a diagnostic tool for: (1) disentangling main sequence and starburst galaxies up to z~5; (2) probing the evolutionary phase of massive objects; and (3) refining the treatment of the dust life cycle in simulations.