Far-Infrared Properties of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies Observed with AKARI/Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS)

TL;DR

This study analyzes the far-infrared properties of eight blue compact dwarf galaxies using AKARI data, revealing higher dust temperatures, intense star formation activity, and a positive correlation between dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity, with implications for galaxy evolution.

Contribution

First detailed FIR analysis of BCDs with AKARI, providing insights into dust properties, star formation rates, and chemical evolution correlations.

Findings

Dust temperatures are higher than in normal spirals.

Star formation rates range from 0.01 to 0.5 solar masses per year.

Dust-to-gas ratio positively correlates with metallicity.

Abstract

We report basic far-infrared (FIR) properties of eight blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDs) observed by AKARI. We measure the fluxes at the four FIS bands (wavelengths of 65 um, 90 um, 140 um, and 160 um). Based on these fluxes, we estimate basic quantities about dust: dust temperature, dust mass, and total FIR luminosity. We find that the typical dust temperature of the BCD sample is systematically higher than that of normal spiral galaxies, although there is a large variety. The interstellar radiation field estimated from the dust temperature ranges up to 100 times of the Galactic value. This confirms the concentrated star-forming activity in BCDs. The star formation rate can be evaluated from the FIR luminosity as 0.01--0.5 $M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Combining this quantity with gas mass taken from the literature, we estimate the gas consumption timescales (gas mass divided by the star formation rate), which prove to span a wide range from 1 Gyr to 100 Gyr. A natural interpretation of this large variety can be provided by intermittent star formation activity. We finally show the relation between dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity (we utilize our estimate of dust mass, and take other necessary quantities from the literature). There is a positive correlation between dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity as expected from chemical evolution models.