The applicability of far-infrared fine-structure lines as star formation rate tracers over wide ranges of metallicities and galaxy types

Abstract

We analyze the applicability of far-infrared fine-structure lines [CII] 158 micron, [OI] 63 micron and [OIII] 88 micron to reliably trace the star formation rate (SFR) in a sample of low-metallicity dwarf galaxies from the Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey and compare with a broad sample of galaxies of various types and metallicities in the literature. We study the trends and scatter in the relation between the SFR (as traced by GALEX FUV and MIPS 24 micron) and far-infrared line emission, on spatially resolved and global galaxy scales, in dwarf galaxies. We assemble far-infrared line measurements from the literature and infer whether the far-infrared lines can probe the SFR (as traced by the total-infrared luminosity) in a variety of galaxy populations. In metal-poor dwarfs, the [OI] and [OIII] lines show the strongest correlation with the SFR with an uncertainty on the SFR estimates better than a factor of 2, while the link between [CII] emission and the SFR is more dispersed (uncertainty factor of 2.6). The increased scatter in the SFR-L([CII]) relation towards low metal abundances, warm dust temperatures, large filling factors of diffuse, highly ionized gas suggests that other cooling lines start to dominate depending on the density and ionization state of the gas. For the literature sample, we evaluate the correlations for a number of different galaxy populations. The [CII] and [OI] lines are considered to be reliable SFR tracers in starburst galaxies, recovering the star formation activity within an uncertainty of factor 2. [Abridged]