Open Access[Oii ] as a Star Formation Rate Indicator
Author(s) -
Lisa J. Kewley,
Margaret J. Geller,
Rolf A. Jansen
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the astronomical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.61
H-Index - 271
eISSN - 1538-3881
pISSN - 0004-6256
DOI - 10.1086/382723
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , metallicity , galaxy , redshift , star formation , luminosity , ionization , interstellar medium , doubly ionized oxygen , spectral line , astronomy , emission spectrum , ion , quantum mechanics
We investigate the [OII] emission-line as a star formation rate (SFR)indicator using integrated spectra of 97 galaxies from the Nearby FieldGalaxies Survey (NFGS). The sample includes all Hubble types and contains SFRsranging from 0.01 to 100 Msun/yr. We compare the Kennicutt [OII] and H-alphaSFR calibrations and show that there are two significant effects which producedisagreement between SFR[OII] and SFR(H-alpha): reddening and metallicity.Differences in the ionization state of the ISM do not contribute significantlyto the observed difference between SFR([OII]) and SFR(H-alpha) for the NFGSgalaxies with metallicities log(O/H)12>8.5. The Kennicutt [OII]-SFR relationassumes a typical reddening for nearby galaxies; in practice, the reddeningdiffers significantly from sample to sample. We derive a new SFR([OII])calibration which does not contain a reddening assumption. Our new SFR([OII])calibration also provides an optional correction for metallicity. Our SFRsderived from [OII] agree with those derived from H-alpha to within 0.03-0.05dex. We apply our SFR([OII]) calibration with metallicity correction to twosamples: high-redshift 0.8
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