Integrated Radio Continuum Spectra of Galaxies

We investigate the spectral shape of the total continuum radiation, between 74 MHz and 5 GHz (400 to 6 cm in wavelength), for a large sample of bright galaxies. We take advantage of the overlapping survey coverage of the VLA Low-Frequency Sky Survey, the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey, the NRAO VLA Sky Survey, and the Green Bank 6 cm survey to achieve significantly better resolution, sensitivity, and sample size compared to prior efforts of this nature. For our sample of 250 bright galaxies we measure a mean spectral index, ${\alpha}$, of -0.69 between 1.4 and 4.85 GHz, -0.55 between 325 MHz and 1.4 GHz, and -0.45 between 74 and 325 MHz, which amounts to a detection of curvature in the mean spectrum. The magnitude of this curvature is approximately ${\Delta \alpha}$ = -0.2 per logarithmic frequency decade when fit with a generalized function having constant curvature. No trend in low frequency spectral flattening versus galaxy inclination is evident in our data, suggesting that free-free absorption is not a satisfying explanation for the observed curvature. The ratio of thermal to non-thermal emission is estimated by two independent methods, (1) using the IRAS far-IR fluxes, and (2) with the value of the total spectral index. Method (1) results in a distribution of 1.4 GHz thermal fractions of 9% ${\pm}$ 3%, which is consistent with previous studies, while method (2) produces a mean 1.4 GHz thermal fraction of 51% with dispersion 26%. The highly implausible values produced by method (2) indicate that the sum of typical power-law thermal and non-thermal components is not a viable model for the total spectral index between 325 and 1.4 GHz.