The cosmic dust rate across the Universe
  We investigate the evolution of interstellar dust in the Universe by means of
chemical evolution models of galaxies of different morphological types,
reproducing the main observed features of present day galaxies. We adopt the
most updated prescriptions for dust production from supernovae and asymptotic
giant branch (AGB) stars as well as for dust accretion and destruction
processes. Then, we study the cosmic dust rate in the framework of three
different cosmological scenarios for galaxy formation: i) a pure luminosity
scenario (PLE), ii) a number density evolution scenario (DE), as suggested by
the classical hierarchical clustering scenario and iii) an alternative
scenario, in which both spirals and ellipticals are allowed to evolve in number
on an observationally motivated basis. Our results give predictions about the
evolution of the dust content in different galaxies as well as the cosmic dust
rate as a function of redshift. Concerning the cosmic dust rate, the best
scenario is the alternative one, which predicts a peak at 2 < z < 3 and
reproduces the cosmic star formation rate. We compute the evolution of the
comoving dust density parameter {\Omega} dust and find agreement with data for
z < 0.5 in the framework of DE and alternative scenarios. Finally, the
evolution of the average cosmic metallicity is presented and it shows a quite
fast increase in each scenario, reaching the solar value at the present time,
although most of the heavy elements are incorporated into solid grains, and
therefore not observable in the gas phase.
