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arxiv: 0705.3377 · v2 · submitted 2007-05-23 · 🌌 astro-ph

The Calibration of Mid-Infrared Star Formation Rate Indicators

D. Calzetti (1 , 2) , R. C. Kennicutt (3) , C. W. Engelbracht (4) , C. Leitherer (2) , B. T. Draine (5) , L. Kewley (6) , J. Moustakas (7)
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M. Sosey (2) D.A. Dale (8) K. D. Gordon (4) G.X. Helou (9) D.J. Hollenbach (10) L. Armus (9) G. Bendo (11) C. Bot (9) B. Buckalew (9) T. Jarrett (9) A. Li (12) M. Meyer (2) E.J. Murphy (13) M. Prescott (4) M. W. Regan (2) G. H. Rieke (4) H. Roussel (14) K. Sheth (9) J. D. T. Smith (4) M. D. Thornley (15) F. Walter (14) ((1) Dept. of Astronomy University of Massachusetts; (2) Space Telescope Science Institute; (3) Institute of Astronomy Cambridge University; (4) Steward Observatory University of Arizona; (5) Princeton University Observatory; (6) Institute for Astronomy University of Hawaii; (7) Dept. of Physics New York University; (8) Dept. of Physics Astronomy University of Wyoming; (9) Spitzer Science Center Caltech; (10) NASA/Ames Research Center; (11) Astrophysics Group Imperial College; (12) Dept. of Physics University of Missouri; (13) Dept. of Astronomy Yale University; (14) Max Planck Institut fur Astronomie Heidelberg; (15) Dept. of Physics Bucknell University)
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keywords emissiongalaxiesdustformationpresentedstarcalibrationcalibrations
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With the goal of investigating the degree to which the mid-infrared emission traces the star formation rate (SFR), we analyze Spitzer 8 um and 24 um data of star-forming regions in a sample of 33 nearby galaxies with available HST/NICMOS images in the Paschen-alpha (1.8756 um) emission line. The galaxies are drawn from the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) sample, and cover a range of morphologies and a factor ~10 in oxygen abundance. Published data on local low-metallicity starburst galaxies and Luminous Infrared Galaxies are also included in the analysis. Both the stellar-continuum-subtracted 8 um emission and the 24 um emission correlate with the extinction-corrected Pa-alpha line emission, although neither relationship is linear. Simple models of stellar populations and dust extinction and emission are able to reproduce the observed non-linear trend of the 24 um emission versus number of ionizing photons, including the modest deficiency of 24 um emission in the low metallicity regions, which results from a combination of decreasing dust opacity and dust temperature at low luminosities. Conversely, the trend of the 8 um emission as a function of the number of ionizing photons is not well reproduced by the same models. The 8 um emission is contributed, in larger measure than the 24 um emission, by dust heated by non-ionizing stellar populations, in agreement with previous findings. Two SFR calibrations, one using the 24 um emission and the other using a combination of the 24 um and H-alpha luminosities (Kennicutt et al. 2007), are presented. No calibration is presented for the 8 um emission, because of its significant dependence on both metallicity and environment. The calibrations presented here should be directly applicable to systems dominated by on-going star formation.

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