GAMA/H-ATLAS: common star formation rate indicators and their dependence on galaxy physical parameters

Wang, L., Norberg, P., Gunawardhana, M.L.P., Heinis, S., Baldry, I.K., Bland-Hawthorn, J., Bourne, N., Brough, S., Brown, M.J.I., Cluver, M.E., Cooray, A., da Cunha, E., Driver, S.P., Dunne, L., Dye, S., Eales, S., Grootes, M.W., Holwerda, B.W., Hopkins, A.M., Ibar, E., Ivison, R., Lacey, C., Lara-Lopez, M.A., Loveday, J., Maddox, S.J., Michałowski, M.J., Oteo, I., Owers, M.S., Popescu, C.C., Smith, D.J.B., Taylor, E.N., Tuffs, R.J. and van der Werf, P. (2016) GAMA/H-ATLAS: common star formation rate indicators and their dependence on galaxy physical parameters. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 461 (2). pp. 1898-1916. ISSN 1365-2966

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Abstract

We compare common star formation rate (SFR) indicators in the local Universe in the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) equatorial fields (∼160 deg2), using ultraviolet (UV) photometry from GALEX, far-infrared and sub-millimetre (sub-mm) photometry from Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey, and Hα spectroscopy from the GAMA survey. With a high-quality sample of 745 galaxies (median redshift 〈z〉 = 0.08), we consider three SFR tracers: UV luminosity corrected for dust attenuation using the UV spectral slope β (SFRUV, corr), Hα line luminosity corrected for dust using the Balmer decrement (BD) (SFRH α, corr), and the combination of UV and infrared (IR) emission (SFRUV + IR). We demonstrate that SFRUV, corr can be reconciled with the other two tracers after applying attenuation corrections by calibrating Infrared excess (IRX; i.e. the IR to UV luminosity ratio) and attenuation in the Hα (derived from BD) against β. However, β, on its own, is very unlikely to be a reliable attenuation indicator. We find that attenuation correction factors depend on parameters such as stellar mass (M*), z and dust temperature (Tdust), but not on Hα equivalent width or Sérsic index. Due to the large scatter in the IRX versus β correlation, when compared to SFRUV + IR, the β-corrected SFRUV, corr exhibits systematic deviations as a function of IRX, BD and Tdust.

Item Type: Article
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/794268
Additional Information: This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Keywords: methods: statistical, galaxies: photometry, galaxies: statistics, infrared: galaxies, ultraviolet: galaxies
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Science > School of Physics and Astronomy
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1450
Depositing User: Eprints, Support
Date Deposited: 27 Apr 2017 09:02
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 17:55
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/42348

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