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Published January 2019 | Accepted Version + Published
Journal Article Open

Comprehensive comparison of models for spectral energy distributions from 0.1 μm to 1 mm of nearby star-forming galaxies

Abstract

We have fit the far-ultraviolet (FUV) to sub-millimeter (850 μm) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the 61 galaxies from the Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH). The fitting has been performed using three models: the Code for Investigating GALaxy Evolution (CIGALE), the GRAphite-SILicate approach (GRASIL), and the Multiwavelength Analysis of Galaxy PHYSical properties (MAGPHYS). We have analyzed the results of the three codes in terms of the SED shapes, and by comparing the derived quantities with simple "recipes" for stellar mass (M_(star)), star-formation rate (SFR), dust mass (M_(dust)), and monochromatic luminosities. Although the algorithms rely on different assumptions for star-formation history, dust attenuation and dust reprocessing, they all well approximate the observed SEDs and are in generally good agreement for the associated quantities. However, the three codes show very different behavior in the mid-infrared regime: in the 5–10 μm region dominated by PAH emission, and also between 25 and 70 μm where there are no observational constraints for the KINGFISH sample. We find that different algorithms give discordant SFR estimates for galaxies with low specific SFR, and that the standard recipes for calculating FUV absorption overestimate the extinction compared to the SED-fitting results. Results also suggest that assuming a "standard" constant stellar mass-to-light ratio overestimates M_(star) relative to the SED fitting, and we provide new SED-based formulations for estimating M_(star) from WISE W1 (3.4 μm) luminosities and colors. From a principal component analysis of M_(star), SFR, M_(dust), and O/H, we reproduce previous scaling relations among M_(star), SFR, and O/H, and find that M_(dust) can be predicted to within ∼0.3 dex using only M_(star) and SFR.

Additional Information

© 2019 ESO. Article published by EDP Sciences. Received 9 September 2018; Accepted 6 November 2018; Published online 07 January 2019. We thank the anonymous referee for a very timely report and constructive comments. We thank Paolo Serra for insights into star-formation rates for early-type galaxies, and Anna Gallazzi for kindly passing us her SDSS sample in digital form for comparison. We are also grateful to Michael Brown for helpful input, and Elisabete da Cunha for her careful comments on the manuscript in advance of publication. SB, GLG, LKH, AR, and LS acknowledge funding by an Italian research grant, PRIN-INAF/2012, and SB, GLG, LKH, LS, and SZ by the INAF PRIN-SKA 2017 program 1.05.01.88.04. MB was supported by the FONDECYT regular project 1170618 and the MINEDUC-UA projects codes ANT 1655 and ANT 1656. IDL gratefully acknowledges the support of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO-Vlaanderen). RN acknowledges partial support by FONDECYT grant No. 3140436, and MR support by Spanish MEC Grant AYA-2014-53506-P. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Published - aa34212-18.pdf

Accepted Version - 1809.04088.pdf

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August 19, 2023
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