SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · astro-ph/9803156

The Observation of the Nearby Universe in UV and in FIR: an evidence for a moderate extinction in present day star forming galaxies

Abstract

We study the FIR and UV-visible properties of nearby star forming galaxies. This comparison is performed using the local luminosity functions at UV and FIR wavelengths and on individual starburst galaxies for which photometric data from UV to NIR and FIR are available. The comparison of the FIR and UV local luminosity functions argues for a moderate extinction in nearby disk galaxies. For a sample of 22 starburst galaxies, it is found that the UV(912-3650AA), the visible(3600-12500 AA) and the NIR(12500-22000 AA) wavelength range contribute 30%, 50% and 20% respectively to the total emerging stellar emission. The mean ratio of the dust to bolometric luminosity of these galaxies is 0.37+/-0.22 similar to the ratio found for normal spiral galaxies. The mean extinction at 2000AA is found to be ~1.2mag although with a large dispersion. The conversion factor of the stellar emission into dust emission is found to correlate with the luminosity of the galaxies, brighter galaxies having a higher conversion factor. We conclude that a very large conversion of the stellar light into dust emission can no longer be assumed as a general property of starburst galaxies at least in the local Universe. We compare the UV properties of our local starburst galaxies to those of high redshift galaxies. The larger extinction found in the distant galaxies is consistent with the trend we find for the nearby starburst galaxies namely the brighter the galaxies the lower the escape fraction of stellar light.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Veronique Buat, Denis Burgarella. 1998-03-13. The Observation of the Nearby Universe in UV and in FIR: an evidence for a moderate extinction in present day star forming galaxies. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9803156

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Deformation procedure for scalar fields in cosmology

This work offers an extension of the deformation procedure introduced in field theory to the case of standard cosmology in the presence of real scalar field in flat space-time. The procedure is shown to work for many models, which give rise to several different cosmic scenarios, evolving under the presence of first-order differential equations which solve the corresponding equations of motion very appropriately.

astro-ph

Dark Energy is the Cosmological Quantum Vacuum Energy of Light Particles-The Axion and the Lightest Neutrino

We uncover the general mechanism producing the dark energy(DE). This is only based on well known quantum physics and cosmology. We show that the observed DE originates from the cosmological quantum vacuum of light particles which provides a continuous energy distribution able to reproduce the data. Bosons give positive contributions to the DE while fermions yield negative contributions. As usual in field theory, ultraviolet divergences are subtracted from the physical quantities. The subtractions respect the symmetries of the theory and we normalize the physical quantities to be zero for the Minkowski vacuum. The resulting finite contributions to the energy density and the pressure from the quantum vacuum grow as log a(t) where a(t) is the scale factor, while the particle contributions dilute as 1/a^3(t), as it must be for massive particles. The DE equation of state P = w(z)H turns to be w(z)<-1 with w(z) asymptotically reaching the value -1 from below.A scalar particle can produce the observed DE through its quantum cosmological vacuum provided:(i)its mass is of the order of 10^{-3} eV = 1 meV,(ii) it is very weakly coupled and (iii) it is stable on the time scale of the age of the universe. The axion vacuum thus appears as a natural candidate. The neutrino vacuum (especially the lightest mass eigenstate) can give negative contributions to the DE. We find that w(z=0) is slightly below -1 by an amount ranging from [-1.5 10^{-3}] to [-8 10^{-3}] and we predict the axion mass to be in the range between 4 and 5 meV. We find that the universe will expand in the future faster than the de Sitter universe, as an exponential in the square of the cosmic time. DE arises from the quantum vacua of light particles in FRW cosmological space time in an analogous way to the Casimir effect in Minkowski spacetime with non trivial boundaries.

astro-ph