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Single flux density measurements at observed-frame sub-millimeter andmillimeter wavelengths are commonly used to probe dust and gas masses ingalaxies. In this Letter, we explore the robustness of this method to inferdust mass, focusing on quiescent galaxies, using a series of controlledexperiments on four massive haloes from the Feedback in Realistic Environments(FIRE) project. Our starting point is four star-forming, central galaxies atseven redshifts between z=1.5 and z=4.5. We generate modified quiescentgalaxies that have been quenched for 100Myr, 500Myr, or 1Gyr prior to each ofthe studied redshifts by re-assigning stellar ages. We derive spectral energydistributions for each fiducial and modified galaxy using radiative transfer.We demonstrate that the dust mass inferred is highly dependent on the assumeddust temperature, T_dust, which is often unconstrained observationally.Motivated by recent work on quiescent galaxies that assumed T_dust~25K, we showthat the ratio between dust mass and 1.3mm flux density can be higher thaninferred by up to an order of magnitude, due to the considerably lower dusttemperatures seen in non star-forming galaxies. This can lead to anunderestimation of dust mass (and, when sub-mm flux density is used as a proxyfor molecular gas content, gas mass). This underestimation is most severe athigher redshifts, where the observed-frame 1.3mm flux density probes rest-framewavelengths far from the Rayleigh-Jeans regime, and hence dependssuper-linearly on dust temperature. We fit relations between ratios ofrest-frame far-infrared flux densities and mass-weighted dust temperature thatcan be used to constrain dust temperatures from observations and hence derivemore reliable dust and molecular gas masses.

the astrophysical journal. letters

Dust temperature uncertainties hamper the inference of dust and  molecular gas masses from the dust continuum emission of quiescent  high-redshift galaxies