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Title

The local star formation rate density: assessing calibrations using [O II], H alpha and UV luminosities

Author(s)

Gilbank, David G.;  Baldry, Ivan K.;  Balogh, Michael L.;  Glazebrook, Karl;  Bower, Richard G.

Abstract

We explore the use of simple star formation rate (SFR) indicators (such as may be used in high-redshift galaxy surveys) in the local Universe using [O II], H alpha and u-band luminosities from the deeper 275 deg(2) Stripe 82 subsample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) coupled with UV data from the Galaxy Evolution EXplorer (GALEX) satellite. We examine the consistency of such methods using the star formation rate density as a function of stellar mass in this local volume, and quantify the accuracy of corrections for dust and metallicity on the various indicators. Rest-frame u-band promises to be a particularly good SFR estimator for high-redshift studies since it does not require a particularly large or sensitive extinction correction, yet yields results broadly consistent with more observationally expensive methods. We suggest that the [O II]-derived SFR, commonly used at higher redshifts (z similar to 1), can be used to reliably estimate SFRs for ensembles of galaxies, but for high-mass galaxies (log(M-*/M-circle dot) greater than or similar to 10), a larger correction than is typically used is required to compensate for the effects of metallicity dependence and dust extinction. We provide a new empirical mass-dependent correction for the [O II]-SFR.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing

Source

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 405, no. 4 (Jul 2010), pp. 2594-2614

Publication year

2010

FOR Code(s)

0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences

Keyword(s)

Galaxy evolution;  Luminosity;  Star formation rate

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell Publishing

ISSN

0035-8711

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16640.x

Copyright

Copyright © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation copyright © 2010 Royal Astronomical Society. The accepted manuscript of this paper is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. The definitive publication is available at www.interscience.wiley.com.

Full text

Peer reviewed