Calibration of Ultraviolet, Mid-infrared, and Radio Star Formation Rate Indicators

Journal article (2017)

Authors

Michael J.I. Brown Monash University
J. Moustakas Siena College
E. Da Cunha Swinburne University of Technology, Australian National University
M. Imanishi Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), Subaru Telescope, Subaru Telescope
Lee Armus Spitzer Science Center
B.R. Brandl Universiteit Leiden
J. E.G. Peek Space Telescope Science Institute, Columbia University
R. C. Kennicutt University of Cambridge
N. J. Bonne University of Portsmouth
H. T. Intema Universiteit Leiden
F. de Gasperin Universiteit Leiden
M. Boquien University of Cambridge, Universidad de Antofagasta
T. H. Jarrett University of Cape Town
M. E. Cluver University of the Western Cape
J. D T Smith University of Toledo
Affiliation
External organisation
Dust, extinction Techniques: spectroscopic Galaxies: evolution Galaxies: general Galaxies: photometry Stars: formation
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Published Date

01-10-2017

Language

English

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Abstract

We present calibrations for star formation rate (SFR) indicators in the ultraviolet, mid-infrared, and radiocontinuumbands, including one of the first direct calibrations of 150 MHz as an SFR indicator. Our calibrationsutilize 66 nearby star-forming galaxies with Balmer-decrement-corrected Hα luminosities, which span five ordersof magnitude in SFR and have absolute magnitudes of -24 < Mr < -12. Most of our photometry andspectrophotometry are measured from the same region of each galaxy, and our spectrophotometry has beenvalidated with SDSS photometry, so our random and systematic errors are small relative to the intrinsic scatter seenin SFR indicator calibrations. We find that the Wide-field Infrared Space Explorer W4 (22.8 μm), Spitzer 24 μm,and 1.4 GHz bands have tight correlations with the Balmer-decrement-corrected Hα luminosity, with a scatter ofonly 0.2 dex. Our calibrations are comparable to those from the prior literature for L∗ galaxies, but for dwarfgalaxies, our calibrations can give SFRs that are far greater than those derived from most previous literature.