Pith. Sign in

RECORD

The total infrared luminosity may significantly overestimate the star formation rate of recently quenched galaxies

PaperPDF from arXiv

data files

Paper breakdownThe authors' claims, conditions and measurements, as JSON Signed receiptProof this review has not been altered
X Bluesky LinkedIn Reddit Hacker News
Christopher C. Hayward, Lauranne Lanz, Matthew L. N. Ashby, Giovanni Fazio, Lars Hernquist, Juan Rafael Martínez-Galarza, Kai Noeske, Howard A. Smith
show 2 more authors
Stijn Wuyts, Andreas Zezas

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Submitted 31 Jan 2014

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim Consequently, use of the IR luminosity as an SFR indicator may cause one to conclude that post-starburst galaxies are still star-forming, whereas in reality, star formation was recently quenched.

how it is stated · hedged possibility 1.00 read the record →

Comment (0) Read on arXiv ↗
Cite ▾
arXiv ID1402.0006 (version 3)
Pith ID4S3QT2BQ, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review
CitationAndreas Zezas, Christopher C. Hayward, Giovanni Fazio, Howard A. Smith, Juan Rafael Mart\'inez-Galarza, Kai Noeske, Lars Hernquist, Lauranne Lanz, Matthew L. N. Ashby, Stijn Wuyts. "The total infrared luminosity may significantly overestimate the star formation rate of recently quenched galaxies." arXiv:1402.0006 (2014). https://pith.science/paper/4S3QT2BQ
Claim paper

The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

Open the compiled record

Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 5,129 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.03 · states limitation 0.35 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.15 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.96 · compares with prior results 0.29 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v3. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

The total infrared (IR) luminosity is very useful for estimating the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies, but converting the IR luminosity into an SFR relies on assumptions that do not hold for all galaxies. We test the effectiveness of the IR luminosity as an SFR indicator by applying it to synthetic spectral energy distributions generated from three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of isolated disc galaxies and galaxy mergers. In general, the SFR inferred from the IR luminosity agrees well with the true instantaneous SFR of the simulated galaxies. However, for the major mergers in which a strong starburst is induced, the SFR inferred from the IR luminosity can overestimate the instantaneous SFR during the post-starburst phase by greater than two orders of magnitude. Even though the instantaneous SFR decreases rapidly after the starburst, the stars that were formed in the starburst remain dust-obscured and thus produce significant IR luminosity. Consequently, use of the IR luminosity as an SFR indicator may cause one to conclude that post-starburst galaxies are still star-forming, whereas in reality, star formation was recently quenched.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 The total infrared (IR) luminosity is very useful for estimating the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies, but converting the IR luminosity into an SFR relies on assumptions that do not hold for all galaxies. background 0.98 0.06 0.06 asserted 0.99
s1 We test the effectiveness of the IR luminosity as an SFR indicator by applying it to synthetic spectral energy distributions generated from three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of isolated disc galaxies and galaxy mergers. method 0.90 0.93 0.02 asserted 0.84
s2 In general, the SFR inferred from the IR luminosity agrees well with the true instantaneous SFR of the simulated galaxies. result 1.00 0.88 0.05 asserted 0.97
s3 However, for the major mergers in which a strong starburst is induced, the SFR inferred from the IR luminosity can overestimate the instantaneous SFR during the post-starburst phase by greater than two orders of magnitude. result 1.00 0.93 0.67 hedged possibility 0.80
s4 Even though the instantaneous SFR decreases rapidly after the starburst, the stars that were formed in the starburst remain dust-obscured and thus produce significant IR luminosity. interpretation 0.71 0.70 0.08 asserted 1.00
s5 Consequently, use of the IR luminosity as an SFR indicator may cause one to conclude that post-starburst galaxies are still star-forming, whereas in reality, star formation was recently quenched. interpretation 1.00 0.47 0.86 hedged possibility 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: simulation study 1.00 · evidence from simulation or computation 1.00.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read
  • arXiv listing abstract v3
not examined
  • full text
  • figures and tables
  • references and citing sentences
  • relations to other papers
levels run
  • P abstract
not run
  • S sections
  • T body sentences
  • C citations
  • R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper
Original abstract

The total infrared (IR) luminosity is very useful for estimating the star formation rate (SFR) of galaxies, but converting the IR luminosity into an SFR relies on assumptions that do not hold for all galaxies. We test the effectiveness of the IR luminosity as an SFR indicator by applying it to synthetic spectral energy distributions generated from three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations of isolated disc galaxies and galaxy mergers. In general, the SFR inferred from the IR luminosity agrees well with the true instantaneous SFR of the simulated galaxies. However, for the major mergers in which a strong starburst is induced, the SFR inferred from the IR luminosity can overestimate the instantaneous SFR during the post-starburst phase by greater than two orders of magnitude. Even though the instantaneous SFR decreases rapidly after the starburst, the stars that were formed in the starburst remain dust-obscured and thus produce significant IR luminosity. Consequently, use of the IR luminosity as an SFR indicator may cause one to conclude that post-starburst galaxies are still star-forming, whereas in reality, star formation was recently quenched.

Human review

How Pith checks papers → · Full audit of this paper →

References
How the literature uses it

5 arXiv papers cite this in 10 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 7 sentences without a confident label

Cites it as support 1 paper
Cites it as background 2 papers

Discussion

Know something about this paper? Leave a comment, or highlight any passage above to comment on it.