Simulating the Effects of Intergalactic Gray Dust

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Abstract
Using a high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulation, we present amethod to constrain extinction due to intergalactic grey dust based on theobserved magnitudes of distant Type IA supernovae. We apply several simpleprescriptions to relate the intergalactic dust density to the gas density inthe simulation, thereby obtaining dust extinctions that may be directlycompared to the observed distribution of supernova magnitudes. Our analysis issensitive to the spatial distribution of grey dust, but is not dependent on itsintrinsic properties such as its opacity or grain size. We present anapplication of our technique to the supernova data of Perlmutter et al., whofind that their high redshift sample is ~0.2 magnitudes fainter than theexpectation for a non-accelerating, low-density universe. We find that for greydust to be responsible, it must be distributed quite smoothly, e.g., tracingintergalactic gas. More realistic dust distributions, such as dust tracing themetal density, are inconsistent with observations at the 1.5-2 sigma level.Upcoming observations and improved modelling of the dust distribution shouldlead to stronger constraints on intergalactic grey dust extinction
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