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- Title
Encoding of the infrared excess in the NUVrK color diagram for star-forming galaxies.
- Authors
Arnouts, S.; Le Floc'h, E.; Chevallard, J.; Johnson, B. D.; Ilbert, O.; Treyer, M.; Aussel, H.; Capak, P.; Sanders, D. B.; Scoville, N.; McCracken, H. J.; Milliard, B.; Pozzetti, L.; Salvato, M.
- Abstract
We present an empirical method of assessing the star formation rate (SFR) of star-forming galaxies based on their locations in the rest-frame color-color diagram (NUV - r) vs. (r - K). By using the Spitzer 24 μm sample in the COSMOS field (~16 400 galaxies with 0:2 ⩽ z ⩽ 1:3) and a local GALEX-SDSS-SWIRE sample (~700 galaxies with z ⩽ 0:2), we show that the mean infrared excess hIRXi = hLIR=LUVi can be described by a single vector, NRK, that combines the two colors. The calibration between hIRXi and NRK allows us to recover the IR luminosity, LIR, with an accuracy of σ ~ 0:21 for the COSMOS sample and 0.27 dex for the local one. The SFRs derived with this method agree with the ones based on the observed (UV+IR) luminosities and on the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting for the vast majority (~85%) of the star-forming population. Thanks to a library of model galaxy SEDs with realistic prescriptions for the star formation history, we show that we need to include a two-component dust model (i.e., birth clouds and di use ISM) and a full distribution of galaxy inclinations in order to reproduce the behavior of the hIRXi stripes in the NUVrK diagram. In conclusion, the NRK method, based only on the rest-frame UV/optical colors available in most of the extragalactic fields, o ers a simple alternative of assessing the SFR of star-forming galaxies in the absence of far-IR or spectral diagnostic observations.
- Subjects
INFRARED equipment; STAR formation; GALAXY formation; GALACTIC evolution; LUMINOSITY; SPECTRAL energy distribution
- Publication
Astronomy & Astrophysics / Astronomie et Astrophysique, 2013, Vol 558, p1
- ISSN
0004-6361
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/201321768