Multiwavelength Study of X-ray Selected Star Forming Galaxies within the Chandra Deep Field South

TL;DR

This study combines multi-wavelength data and galaxy evolution models to evaluate star formation rate tracers in X-ray selected galaxies, confirming X-ray luminosity as a reliable indicator and exploring effects of obscured AGN and galaxy evolution phases.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of SFR tracers across wavelengths and investigates the impact of obscured AGN and early starburst phases on SFR measurements.

Findings

Good agreement between extinction-corrected UV and X-ray SFRs.

X-ray luminosity is a reliable tracer of recent star formation.

Detection of obscured AGN in galaxies with high SFR(UV).

Abstract

We have combined multi-wavelength observations of a selected sample of starforming galaxies with galaxy evolution models in order to compare the results obtained for different SFR tracers and to study the effect that the evolution of the starforming regions has on them. We also aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the corrections due to extinction and nuclear activity on the derivation of the SFR. We selected the sample from Chandra data for the well studied region Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS) and chose the objects that also have UV and IR data from GALEX and GOODS-Spitzer respectively. Our main finding is that there is good agreement between the extinction corrected SFR(UV) and the SFR(X), and we confirm the use of X-ray luminosities as a trustful tracer of recent star formation activity. Nevertheless, at SFR(UV) larger than about 5Msol/year there are several galaxies with an excess of SFR(X) suggesting the presence of an obscured AGN not detected in the optical spectra. We conclude that the IR luminosity is driven by recent star formation even in those galaxies where the SFR(X) is an order of magnitude higher than the SFR(UV) and therefore may harbour an AGN. One object shows SFR(X) much lower than expected based on the SFR(UV); this SFR(X) `deficit' may be due to an early transient phase before most of the massive X-ray binaries were formed. An X-ray deficit could be used to select extremely young bursts in an early phase just after the explosion of the first supernovae associated with massive stars and before the onset of massive X-ray binaries.