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Published May 20, 2006 | Published
Journal Article Open

Ultraviolet-to-Far-Infrared Properties of Local Star-forming Galaxies

Abstract

We present the results of a multiwavelength study of nearby galaxies aimed at understanding the relation between the ultraviolet and far-infrared emission in star-forming galaxies. The data set comprises new ultraviolet (from HST STIS), ground-based Hα, and radio continuum observations, together with archival infrared data (from IRAS and ISO). The local galaxies are used as benchmarks for comparison of the infrared-to-ultraviolet properties with two populations of high-redshift galaxies: the submillimeter star-forming galaxies detected by SCUBA and the ultraviolet-selected Lyman break galaxies (LBGs). In addition, the long wavelength baseline covered by the present data enables us to compare the star formation rates (SFRs) derived from the observed ultraviolet, Hα, infrared, and radio luminosities and to gauge the impact of dust opacity in the local galaxies. We also derive a new calibration for the nonthermal part of the radio SFR estimator, based on the comparison of 1.4 GHz measurements with a new estimator of the bolometric luminosity of the star-forming regions. We find that more actively star-forming galaxies show higher dust opacities, which is in line with previous results. We find that the local star-forming galaxies have a lower F_(λ)(205 μm)/F_(λ)(UV) ratio by 2-3 orders of magnitude than the submillimeter-selected galaxies and may have a similar or somewhat higher F_(λ)(205 μm)/F_(λ)(UV) ratio than LBGs. The F_(λ)(205 μm)/F_(λ)(UV) ratio of the local galaxy population may be influenced by the cool dust emission in the far-infrared heated by nonionizing stellar populations, which may be reduced or absent in the LBGs.

Additional Information

© 2006 American Astronomical Society. Received 2005 May 31; accepted 2006 January 21. Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Based on observations obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 m telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium. This work was partially supported by NASA grants HST-GO- 8721 and NAG5-8426. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This research made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, under contract with NASA. H. R. S. would like to acknowledge the NRAO Jansky Fellowship program for support during most of the stages of this project. H. R. S. would also like to thank the Spitzer Science Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute visitor programs for their support. The UV observations were obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Basic research at the US Naval Research Laboratory is supported by the Office of Naval Research. We would like to thank the referee for comments that helped us improve this paper.

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August 22, 2023
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October 23, 2023