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Testing star formation rate indicators using galaxy merger simulations and radiative transfer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Christopher C. Hayward ,
Patrik Jonsson ,
Kai Noeske ,
Stijn Wuyts ,
T. J. Cox ,
Desika Narayanan ,
Brent Groves  and
Lars Hernquist
Christopher C. Hayward
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA chayward@cfa.harvard.edu
Patrik Jonsson
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Kai Noeske
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Stijn Wuyts
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
T. J. Cox
Affiliation:
Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
Desika Narayanan
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Brent Groves
Affiliation:
Sterrewacht Leiden, Leiden University, Niels Bohrweg 2, Leiden 2333-CA, The Netherlands
Lars Hernquist
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Abstract

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We discuss our ongoing project analyzing N-body/smoothed-particle hydrodynamics simulations of isolated and merging galaxies, performed using GADGET-2 (Springel 2005), with the 3-D adaptive grid, polychromatic Monte Carlo radiative transfer code SUNRISE (Jonsson 2006). We apply commonly used UV, optical, and IR star formation rate (SFR) indicators to the integrated spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the simulated galaxies in order to determine how well the SFR indicators recover the instantaneous SFR in the simulations. The models underlying each SFR indicator must necessarily make assumptions about physical properties of the galaxies, e.g., the star formation history (SFH), whereas all such properties are known in the simulations. This enables us to test and compare SFR indicators in a way that is complementary to observational studies. We present one preliminary result of interest: even after correcting the Hα luminosity for dust using the Calzetti et al. (2000) attenuation law the SFR is significantly underestimated for simulated galaxies with SFR ≳ 10 M⊙ yr−1.

Keywords

stars: formationgalaxies: stellar contentgalaxies: fundamental parametersgalaxies: starburstgalaxies: high-redshiftdustextinctionradiative transfer
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 5 , Symposium S262: Stellar Populations – Planning for the Next Decade , August 2009 , pp. 257 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2010

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