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arXiv · 1112.0063

Dust reddening in star-forming galaxies

Ting Xiao·Tinggui Wang·Huiyuan Wang·Hongyan Zhou·Honglin Lu·Xiaobo Dong
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Abstract

We present empirical relations between the global dust reddening and other physical galaxy properties including the Halpha luminosity, Halpha surface brightness, metallicity and axial ratio for star-forming disc galaxies. The study is based on a large sample of ~22 000 well-defined star-forming galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The reddening parameterized by color excess E(B-V) is derived from the Balmer decrement. Besides the dependency of reddening on Halpha luminosity / surface brightness and gas phase metallicity, it is also correlated with the galaxy inclination, in the sense that edge-on galaxies are more attenuated than face-on galaxies at a give intrinsic luminosity. In light of these correlations, we present the empirical formulae of E(B-V) as a function of these galaxy properties, with a scatter of only 0.07 mag. The empirical relation can be reproduced if most dust attenuation to the HII region is due to diffuse interstellar dust distributing in a disc thicker than that of HII regions. The empirical formulae can be incorporated into semi-analytical models of galaxy formation and evolution to estimate the dust reddening and enable comparison with observations more practically.

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Ting Xiao, Tinggui Wang, Huiyuan Wang, Hongyan Zhou, Honglin Lu, Xiaobo Dong. 2011-12-03. Dust reddening in star-forming galaxies. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.20327.x

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