Measuring Star Formation Rate and Far-infrared Color in High-redshift Galaxies Using the CO(7-6) and [N II] 205 μm Lines

March 2015 • 2015ApJ...802L..11L

Authors • Lu, Nanyao • Zhao, Yinghe • Xu, C. Kevin • Gao, Yu • Díaz-Santos, Tanio • Charmandaris, Vassilis • Inami, Hanae • Howell, Justin • Liu, Lijie • Armus, Lee • Mazzarella, Joseph M. • Privon, George C. • Lord, Steven D. • Sanders, David B. • Schulz, Bernhard • van der Werf, Paul P.

Abstract • To better characterize the global star formation activity in a galaxy, one needs to know not only the star formation rate (SFR) but also the rest-frame, far-infrared color (e.g., the 60-100 μm color, C(60/100)) of the dust emission. The latter probes the average intensity of the dust heating radiation field and scales statistically with the effective SFR surface density in star-forming galaxies including (ultra-)luminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs). To this end, here we exploit a new spectroscopic approach involving only two emission lines: CO(7-6) at 372 μm and [N ii] at 205 μm([N ii]_205μm). For local (U)LIRGs, the ratios of the CO(7-6) luminosity (L_CO(7-6)) to the total infrared luminosity (L_IR; 8-1000 μm) are fairly tightly distributed (to within ∼0.12 dex) and show little dependence on C(60/100). This makes L_CO(7-6) a good SFR tracer, which is less contaminated by active galactic nuclei than L_IR and may also be much less sensitive to metallicity than L_CO(1-0). Furthermore, the logarithmic [N ii]_205μm/CO(7-6) luminosity ratio depends fairly strongly (at a slope of ∼ -1.4) on C(60/100), with a modest scatter (∼0.23 dex). This makes it a useful estimator on C(60/100) with an implied uncertainty of ∼0.15 (or ≲4 K in the dust temperature (T_dust) in the case of a graybody emission with T_dust ≳ 30 K and a dust emissivity index β ≥ 1). Our locally calibrated SFR and C(60/100) estimators are shown to be consistent with the published data of (U)LIRGs of z up to ∼6.5.

Based on Herschel observations. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Links

• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.02052
• NED https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/uri/NED::InRefcode/2015ApJ...802L..11L
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1088%2F2041-8205%2F802%2F1%2FL11
• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2015ApJ...802L..11L
• PDF https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2041-8205/802/1/L11/pdf
• PDF https://stacks.iop.org/2041-8205/802/L11/pdf
• DATA http://archives.esac.esa.int/hsa/whsa/?ACTION=PUBLICATION&ID=2015ApJ...802L..11L