@article{e92959ab76ac4902abd5d54ed7305c82,
title = "A NEW STAR FORMATION RATE CALIBRATION from POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON EMISSION FEATURES AND APPLICATION TO HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXIES",
abstract = "We calibrate the integrated luminosity from the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features at 6.2, 7.7, and 11.3 μm in galaxies as a measure of the star formation rate (SFR). These features are strong (containing as much as 5%-10% of the total infrared luminosity) and suffer minimal extinction. Our calibration uses Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) measurements of 105 galaxies at 0 < z < 0.4, infrared (IR) luminosities of 109-1012 L⊙, combined with other well-calibrated SFR indicators. The PAH luminosity correlates linearly with the SFR as measured by the extinction-corrected Hα luminosity over the range of luminosities in our calibration sample. The scatter is 0.14 dex, comparable to that between SFRs derived from the Paα and extinction-corrected Hα emission lines, implying that the PAH features may be as accurate an SFR indicator as hydrogen recombination lines. The PAH SFR relation depends on gas-phase metallicity, for which we supply an empirical correction for galaxies with 0.2 Z⊙ < Z ≲ 0.7 Z⊙. We present a case study in advance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will be capable of measuring SFRs from PAHs in distant galaxies at the peak of the SFR density in the universe (z ∼ 2) with SFRs as low as ∼10 M⊙ yr-1. We use Spitzer/IRS observations of the PAH features and Paα emission plus Hα measurements in lensed star-forming galaxies at 1 < z < 3 to demonstrate the ability of the PAHs to derive accurate SFRs. We also demonstrate that because the PAH features dominate the mid-IR fluxes, broadband mid-IR photometric measurements from JWST will both trace the SFR and provide a way to exclude galaxies dominated by an active galactic nucleus.",
keywords = "galaxies: active, galaxies: evolution, galaxies: high-redshift, infrared: galaxies",
author = "Shipley, {Heath V.} and Casey Papovich and Rieke, {George H.} and Brown, {Michael J.I.} and John Moustakas",
note = "Funding Information: We thank our colleagues on the NDWFS and AGES teams. We thank Daniela Calzetti, Darren DePoy, Robert Kennicutt, Jr., Guilane Lagache, Alain Omont, Alexandra Pope, Nicholas Suntzeff, and Marie Treyer for comments that helped improve the manuscript. Support for this work was provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program (ADAP) through grant NNX15AF11G. Further support for this work was provided to the authors by the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy. This work is based in part on observations and archival data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. Partial support for this work was provided by NASA through awards 1255094 and 1365085 issued by JPL/Caltech. This work utilized the PAHFIT IDL tool for decomposing IRS spectra, which J. D. Smith has generously made publicly available (Smith et al. 2007). This work made use of images and/or data products provided by the NOAO Deep Wide-field Survey (Jannuzi & Dey 1999; Dey et al. 2004; Jannuzi et al. 2004), which is supported by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO). NOAO is operated by AURA, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Funding for the SDSS has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, NASA, NSF, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS Web site is http:// www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, Case Western Reserve University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-PlanckInstitute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory, and the University of Washington. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.",
year = "2016",
month = feb,
day = "10",
doi = "10.3847/0004-637X/818/1/60",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "818",
journal = "Astrophysical Journal",
issn = "0004-637X",
publisher = "IOP Publishing Ltd.",
number = "1",
}