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Dust Physics

CosmicGrain represents dust with explicit PartType6 superparticles carrying individual mass, grain radius, carbon fraction, position, velocity, formation time, and stellar-source information.

The current dust lifecycle includes:

  • stellar dust creation from SNII, AGB stars, and luminous red novae (LRNe)
  • dust cooling
  • gas-dust drag
  • astration
  • thermal sputtering and sublimation
  • ISM grain growth
  • subgrid clumping
  • SN shock destruction
  • coagulation
  • shattering
  • radiation pressure
  • evolving carbon/silicate composition

The enrichment model additionally tracks C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe in the gas. See Stellar Enrichment and Feedback for the delayed SNII/hypernova tranches, MESA AGB yields, stochastic heating, and the connection between element availability and dust creation.

Primary physical foundations

  • Dust creation: Todini & Ferrara (2001); Nozawa et al. (2003); Ferrarotti & Gail (2006)
  • Grain growth: Hirashita & Kuo (2011); Asano et al. (2013)
  • Thermal sputtering: Draine & Salpeter (1979); Tsai & Mathews (1995); McKinnon et al. (2017)
  • Shock destruction: Jones et al. (1994, 1996); Bocchio et al. (2014)
  • Drag coupling: McKinnon et al. (2018)
  • Grain temperature/opacity: Draine & Lee (1984); Mathis et al. (1983); Draine & Li (2007)
  • General framework: Dwek (1998); McKinnon et al. (2016)

Model-status note

Implementation does not imply final calibration. In particular, the LRN source channel is operational but its absolute dust-yield normalization remains under active investigation. Quantitative galaxy-scale dust distributions are also being tested for numerical convergence across the zoom-resolution ladder.