SIMULTANEOUS MODELING OF THE STELLAR AND DUST EMISSION IN DISTANT GALAXIES: IMPLICATIONS FOR STAR FORMATION RATE MEASUREMENTS
- Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9513, NL-2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (United States)
We have used near-ultraviolet (NUV) to mid-infrared (MIR) composite spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to simultaneously model the attenuated stellar and dust emission of 0.5 ≲ z ≲ 2.0 galaxies. These composite SEDs were previously constructed from the photometric catalogs of the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey by stacking the observed photometry of galaxies that have similar rest-frame NUV-to-NIR SEDs. In this work, we include a stacked MIPS 24 μm measurement for each SED type to extend the SEDs to rest-frame MIR wavelengths. Consistent with previous studies, the observed MIR emission for most SED types is higher than expected from only the attenuated stellar emission. We fit the NUV-to-MIR composite SEDs with the Flexible Stellar Population Synthesis (FSPS) models, which include both stellar and dust emission. We compare the best-fit star formation rates (SFRs) to the SFRs based on simple UV+IR estimators. Interestingly, the UV and IR luminosities overestimate SFRs—compared to the model SFRs—by more than ∼1 dex for quiescent galaxies, while for the highest star-forming galaxies in our sample the two SFRs are broadly consistent. The difference in specific SFRs also shows a gradually increasing trend with declining specific SFR, implying that quiescent galaxies have even lower specific SFRs than previously found. Contributions from evolved stellar populations to both the UV and the MIR SEDs most likely explain the discrepancy. Based on this work, we conclude that SFRs should be determined from modeling the attenuated stellar and dust emission simultaneously, instead of employing simple UV+IR-based SFR estimators.
- OSTI ID:
- 22365979
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 783, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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