UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe

By S. Salim, R. Rich, S. Charlot, J. Brinchmann, Benjamin D. Johnson, David Schiminovich, M. Seibert, Ryan Mallery, T. Heckman, K. Forster and 14 more. 2007

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We measure star formation rates (SFRs) of ≈50,000 optically selected galaxies in the local universe (z ≈ 0.1)—from gas-rich dwarfs to massive ellipticals. We obtain dust-corrected SFRs by fitting the GALEX (ultraviolet) and SDSS photometry to a library of dust-attenuated population synthesis models. For star-forming galaxies, our UV-based SFRs compare remarkably well with those from SDSS-measured emission lines (Hα). Deviations from perfect agreement are shown to be due to differences in the dust attenuation estimates. In contrast to Hα measurements, UV provides reliable SFRs for galaxies with weak Hα, and where Hα is contaminated with AGN emission (1/2 of the sample). Using full-SED SFRs, we calibrate a simple prescription that uses GALEX far- and near-UV magnitudes to produce dust-corrected SFRs for normal star-forming galaxies. The specific SFR is considered as a function of stellar mass for (1) star-forming galaxies with no AGNs, (2) those hosting an AGN, and (3) galaxies without Hα emission. We find that the three have distinct star formation histories, with AGNs lying intermediate between the star-forming and the quiescent galaxies. Star-forming galaxies without an AGN lie on a relatively narrow linear sequence. Remarkably, galaxies hosting a strong AGN appear to represent the massive continuation of this sequence. On the other hand, weak AGNs, while also massive, have lower SFRs, sometimes extending to the realm of quiescent galaxies. We propose an evolutionary sequence for massive galaxies that smoothly connects normal star-forming galaxies to quiescent galaxies via strong and weak AGNs. We confirm that some galaxies with no Hα show signs of star formation in the UV. We derive a cosmic star formation density at z = 0.1 with significantly smaller total error than previous measurements.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0d0f77eccd757b139c58ea122d91066e56f297d8

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Citations in the corpus

ENVIRONMENTAL DEPENDENCE OF THE KENNICUTT–SCHMIDT RELATION IN GALAXIES (2010, methodology): “This specific choice corresponds to the averaging spatial scale and star formation indicator used in the THINGS measurements (Salim et al. 2007; Bigiel et al. 2008).”
Galaxy Evolution in Cosmological Simulations with Outflows II: Metallicities and Gas Fractions (2011, background): “We note that the observed SDSS sample is solely emission-line galaxies, so does not include “red and dead” systems; nevertheless, as shown in e.g. Salim et al. (2007) and Paper I, even star-forming systems seem to have suppressed star formation at the massive end compared with a simple…”
THE MAJOR AND MINOR GALAXY MERGER RATES AT z < 1.5 (2011, methodology): “(Stellar masses were calculated using Bruzual & Charlot 2003 spectral energy distributions and a Chabrier 2003 initial mass function; see Salim et al. 2009, 2007 for details).”
UPDATED NEARBY GALAXY CATALOG (2013, result): “…certain incompleteness of our Hα survey on the outskirts of the LV, as well as incompleteness of the UV-survey in the region of strong Galactic extinction, this value is consistent with the global average value (0.018± 0.003)M⊙ · yr −1Mpc−3 according to Salim et al. (2007) and James et al. (2008).”
COLD GASS, an IRAM legacy survey of molecular gas in massive galaxies – I. Relations between H2, H i, stellar content and structural properties (2011, methodology): “Stellar masses are calculated from the SDSS photometry using the SED-fitting technique of Salim et al. (2007), assuming a Chabrier initial mass function (IMF) (Chabrier 2003).”
CLASH: THREE STRONGLY LENSED IMAGES OF A CANDIDATE z ≈ 11 GALAXY (2012, methodology): “We supplemented these SEDs with a suite of smooth τ models with stochastic bursts superposed (e.g., Kauffmann et al. 2003; Salim et al. 2007), as well as truncated (“quenched”) SFHs designed to reproduce the colors of post-starburst (K+A) galaxies.”
Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – VI. The orbital extent of enhanced star formation in interacting galaxies (2013, background): “We note also that our SDSS paired galaxies (and their controls) were requiredto have secure SFR measurements; as a result, our sample is restricted primarily to ‘blue cloud’ galaxies which lie on the star-forming sequence (Salim et al. 2007).”
GALEX–SDSS–WISE LEGACY CATALOG (GSWLC): STAR FORMATION RATES, STELLAR MASSES, AND DUST ATTENUATIONS OF 700,000 LOW-REDSHIFT GALAXIES (2016, methodology): “Salim et al. (2007) (hereafter S07) performed a thorough investigation of SFRs in the local universe and showed that the UV/optical SED fitting is especially powerful for obtaining SFRs of galaxies with low SSFRs.”
REGULARITY UNDERLYING COMPLEXITY: A REDSHIFT-INDEPENDENT DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTINUOUS VARIATION OF GALAXY-SCALE MOLECULAR GAS PROPERTIES IN THE MASS-STAR FORMATION RATE PLANE (2013, positive): “Initially observed at low redshift (e.g., Brinchmann et al. 2004, Salim et al. 2007, Wyder et al. 2007), this “star-forming main sequence (MS)” was soon shown to be present out to z∼ 2 (Noeske et al. 2007, Elbaz et al. 2007, Daddi et al. 2007b).”
THE MASS–METALLICITY RELATION WITH THE DIRECT METHOD ON STACKED SPECTRA OF SDSS GALAXIES (2012, methodology): “We adopt the total stellar mass (Kauffmann et al. 2003b) and the total SFR (Brinchmann et al. 2004; Salim et al. 2007) values from the MPA-JHU catalog, as opposed to these quantities calculated only for the light within the fiber.”
CONFIRMATION OF A STAR FORMATION BIAS IN TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA DISTANCES AND ITS EFFECT ON THE MEASUREMENT OF THE HUBBLE CONSTANT (2014, methodology): “This makes them consistent and commonly used star formation indicators (see, e.g., Sullivan et al. 2000; Bell & Kennicutt 2001; Salim et al. 2007 and generally Lee et al. 2009, 2011 and references therein).”
THE CALIBRATION OF MONOCHROMATIC FAR-INFRARED STAR FORMATION RATE INDICATORS (2010, background): “…Geller & Jansen 2004; Calzetti et al. 2005; Schmitt et al. 2006; Moustakas, Kennicutt & Tremonti 2006; Alonso–Herrero et al. 2006; Calzetti et al. 2007; Salim et al. 2007; Persic & Rephaeli 2007; Rosa–Gonzalez et al. 2007; Kennicutt et al. 2007; Bigiel et al. 2008; Rieke et al. 2009; Calzetti…”
GALAXY ZOO: THE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT CO-EVOLUTION OF SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES AND THEIR EARLY- AND LATE-TYPE HOST GALAXIES (2010, background): “…colors and that they are less common in the blue cloud and the red sequence (e.g., Schawinski et al. 2007; Nandra et al. 2007; Wild et al. 2007; Salim et al. 2007; Constantin et al. 2008; Martin et al. 2007; Georgakakis et al. 2008; Silverman et al. 2008; Schawinski et al. 2009c; Treister et…”
MaGICC discs: matching observed galaxy relationships over a wide stellar mass range (2012, background): “1 I N T RO D U C T I O N The rotation velocity, size, luminosity (e.g. Courteau et al. 2007), star formation rate (e.g. Salim et al. 2007), stellar mass (e.g. Bell et al. 2003), total virial mass (including dark matter; Mandelbaum et al. e.g. 2006; More et al. e.g. 2011), mass of neutral hydrogen…”
Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies (2013, methodology): “Salim et al. (2007) analyzed a comparably sized sample of z ∼ 0 galaxies, focusing on UV photometry from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and optical photometry from SDSS.”
Galaxies in a simulated ΛCDM universe – II. Observable properties and constraints on feedback (2009, methodology): “4 is partly an artefact: there is a lower limit of SSFR ∼ 10−5 Gyr−1 allowed in the models of SSFR history used in Salim et al. (2007) causing the mean log(SSFR) of individual low-SSFR galaxies to cluster around a value somewhat higher than this.)”