Physics and Astronomy Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2019
Journal
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume
482
Issue
1
First Page
560
Last Page
577
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1093/mnras/sty2699
Abstract
We present multiwavelength global star formation rate (SFR) estimates for 326 galaxies from the Star Formation Reference Survey in order to determine the mutual scatter and range of validity of different indicators. The widely used empirical SFR recipes based on 1.4 GHz continuum, 8.0 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a combination of far-infrared (FIR) plus ultraviolet (UV) emission are mutually consistent with scatter of ≲0.3 dex. The scatter is even smaller, ≲0.24 dex, in the intermediate luminosity range 9.3 < log(L60 μm/L⊙) < 10.7. The data prefer a non-linear relation between 1.4 GHz luminosity and other SFR measures. PAH luminosity underestimates SFR for galaxies with strong UV emission. A bolometric extinction correction to far-UV luminosity yields SFR within 0.2 dex of the total SFR estimate, but extinction corrections based on UV spectral slope or nuclear Balmer decrement give SFRs that may differ from the total SFR by up to 2 dex. However, for the minority of galaxies with UV luminosity > 5 × 109 L⊙ or with implied far-UV extinction < 1mag, the UV spectral slope gives extinction corrections with 0.22 dex uncertainty.
