Star formation in LINER host galaxies at z~0.3

We present the results of a Herschel-PACS study of a sample of 97 LINERs at redshift z\sim 0.3 selected from the zCOSMOS survey. Of these sources, 34 are detected in a least one PACS band, enabling reliable estimates of the far-infrared L(FIR) luminosities, and a comparison to the FIR luminosities of local LINERs. Many of our PACS-detected LINERs are also UV sources detected by Galex. Assuming that the FIR is produced in young dusty star-forming regions, the typical star-formation rates (SFRs) for the host galaxies in our sample is \sim 10 M_Sun yr-1, 1-2 orders of magnitude larger than in many local LINERs. Given stellar masses inferred from optical/NIR photometry of the (unobscured) evolved stellar populations, we find that the entire sample lies close to the star-forming "main sequence" for galaxies at redshift 0.3. For young star-forming regions, the H\alpha- and UV-based estimates of the SFRs are much smaller than the FIR-based estimates, by factors \sim 30, even assuming that all of the H\alpha\ emission is produced by O-star ionization rather than by the AGNs. These discrepancies may be due to large (and uncertain) extinctions towards the young stellar systems. Alternatively, the H\alpha\ and UV emissions could be tracing residual star-formation in an older less obscured population with decaying star formation. We also compare L(SF) and L(AGN) in local LINERs and in our sample and comment on the problematic use of several line diagnostic diagrams in cases similar to the sample under study.