Dependence of Dust Obscuration on Star Formation Rates in Galaxies

Many investigations of star formation rates (SFRs) in galaxies have exploreddetails of dust obscuration, with a number of recent analyses suggesting thatobscuration appears to increase in systems with high rates of star formation.To date these analyses have been primarily based on nearby (z < 0.03) or UVselected samples. Using 1.4 GHz imaging and optical spectroscopic data from thePhoenix Deep Survey, the SFR-dependent obscuration is explored. The use of aradio selected sample shows that previous studies exploring SFR-dependentobscurations have been biased against obscured galaxies. The observed relationbetween obscuration and SFR is found to be unsuitable to be used as anobscuration measure for individual galaxies. Nevertheless, it is shown to besuccessful as a first order correction for large samples of galaxies where noother measure of obscuration is available, out to intermediate redshifts (z ~0.8).Comment: 9 pages (including 5 encapsulated postscript figures), aastex, uses emulateapj5.sty. Accepted for publication in Ap