DustPedia and Local Volume Legacy samples as benchmarks for dust evolution in galaxies

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Florence, Italy
² STAR Institute, Université de Liège, Quartier Agora, Allée du six Aout 19c, B-4000 Liege, Belgium
³ Sterrenkundig Observatorium Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
⁴ Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁵ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, Via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁶ INAF – Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna, via Gobetti 93/3, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁷ National Observatory of Athens, Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing, Ioannou Metaxa and Vasileos Pavlou, GR-15236 Athens, Greece
⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Via Piero Gobetti 93/2, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
⁹ Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Denmark
¹⁰ DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
¹¹ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jagtvej 128, DK-2200 Copenhagen, Denmark

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 14 January 2026
Accepted: 9 April 2026

Abstract

Aims. DustPedia and Local Volume Legacy (LVL) are two samples representative of the local galaxy population, including in total ∼1000 unique objects of all morphological types, with a wide range of stellar masses and star formation activity, and a spectral coverage from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared. The purpose of this work is to show that these samples cover two complementary ranges in stellar mass and galaxy morphology, making them an ideal set for constraining the dominant processes in the evolution of the galactic dust content.

Methods. Using the multi-wavelength data provided by the two surveys, we fitted the galaxies’ spectral energy distribution and estimated their physical properties, in particular the stellar mass, M_*, the specific dust mass, sM_dust = M_dust/M_*, and the specific star formation rate, sSFR = SFR/M_*.

Results. By combining DustPedia and LVL, we highlight that the trend of log₁₀(sM_dust) with log₁₀(M_*) is not monotonic. Thanks to a large number of objects across a wide range of M_*, we have been able to fit two smoothly joined linear correlations: a positive one for log₁₀(M_*/M_⊙)≲9.5 (a range populated mostly by LVL late spirals and irregulars), and a negative one for larger-mass, mainly DustPedia, spirals (with early-type galaxies being distinct and more dispersed in the same mass regime). For log₁₀(M_*/M_⊙) > 9.5, we confirm a strong correlation between sM_dust and sSFR; dwarf galaxies, instead, lie below this trend, showing a large scatter of sM_dust for −10.5 < log₁₀(sSFR/yr⁻¹) <  − 9.0. By using chemical evolution models we find that the observed log₁₀(sM_dust)–log₁₀(M_*) and log₁₀(sM_dust)–log₁₀(sSFR) trends can be interpreted mainly by variations in the initial gas mass budget and the galaxy ages, respectively. Low-mass Sm-Irr galaxies with low sM_dust and a high sSFR can only be reproduced by the models by assuming a highly efficient photofragmentation rate of large grains, and/or low grain growth in clouds.