Unravelling the Dust Attenuation Scaling Relations and their Evolution

Understand

We explore the dependence of dust attenuation, as traced by the $\rm H_{\alpha}/\rm H_{\beta}$ Balmer decrement, on galactic properties by using a large sample of SDSS spectra.

• We use both Partial Correlation Coefficients (PCC) and Random Forest (RF) analysis to distinguish those galactic parameters that directly and primarily drive dust attenuation in galaxies, from parameters that are only indirectly correlated through secondary dependencies.
• We find that, once galactic inclination is controlled for, dust attenuation depends primarily on stellar mass, followed by metallicity and velocity dispersion.
• Once the dependence on these quantities is taken into account, there is no dependence on star formation rate.