2016/06/20 by L. Wang, P. Norberg, M. L. P. Gunawardhana +44
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Attenuation #Balmer series #Emission spectrum #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Infrared #Luminosity #Luminous infrared galaxy #Optics #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Redshift #Spectral line #Star formation #Stars #Stellar mass #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1450
21 pages. 19 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
openalex publication_date 2016/06/20 · arxiv created 2016/07/25 · arxiv updated 2016/07/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
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.