Modelling the SEDs of spiral galaxies
Cristina C. Popescu (University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK),, Richard J. Tuffs (Max Planck Institut fuer Kernphysik, Astrophysics, Department, Heidelberg, Germany)
TL;DR
This paper presents a new SED modelling technique for spiral galaxies observed with Herschel, enabling better interpretation of their star formation activity and dust properties across different regions.
Contribution
It introduces a comprehensive SED modelling method and demonstrates its application to understanding the optical thickness and inhomogeneity of spiral galaxies.
Findings
Spiral galaxies in the nearby universe are generally optically thick.
Galaxies have both optically thick and thin regions, affecting their transparency.
The modelling predicts the B-band attenuation-inclination relation.
Abstract
Modelling the UV/optical - infrared/submm SEDs of spiral galaxies observed with Herschel will be an essential tool to quantitatively interpret these observations in terms of the present and past star-formation activity of these systems. In this lecture we describe the SED modelling technique we have developed, its applications and tests of its predictions. We show that both the panchromatic SED modelling of individual galaxies and the B-band attenuation-inclination relation of large statistical samples suggest that spiral galaxies in the nearby Universe behave as optically thick systems in their global properties and large-scale distribution of light (central face-on B-band opacity of approx. 4). However disk galaxies are very inhomogeneous systems, having both optically thick components (e.g. spiral arms), and optically thin components (e.g. the interarm regions), the latter making…
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