The radio - far infrared correlation in the faintest star forming dwarf galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the radio-FIR correlation in faint dwarf irregular galaxies, revealing a consistent flux ratio with larger galaxies despite lower flux levels and a reduced non-thermal radio emission fraction.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the radio-FIR correlation and magnetic field strengths in extremely faint dwarf galaxies using stacking techniques.

Findings

Radio and FIR fluxes are lower than in large spirals for the same SFR.

The flux ratio between 70 um and 1.4 GHz aligns with larger galaxies.

Non-thermal radio emission fraction is about 50%, lower than in spirals.

Abstract

We study the radio - far-infrared (FIR) correlation in a sample of faint dwarf irregular galaxies using NVSS data for 1.4 GHz radio flux, Spitzer MIPS 70 um data for FIR flux, and GALEX FUV data to estimate the star formation rates (SFR). Since our target galaxies are extremely faint, we stack images of many galaxies together to estimate the average radio and FIR fluxes. We find that for a given SFR both 70 um and 1.4 GHz fluxes are low compared to the calibration for large spirals. Nonetheless, the ratio of 70 um to 1.4 GHz flux agrees within errorbars with that seen for large galaxies. The radio-FIR correlation thus appears to be the result of a 'conspiracy'. We use the SFR to estimate the non-thermal fraction of the 1.4 GHz radio emission and find it to be around 50%, much smaller than the 90% typical for spirals. We also estimate the equipartition magnetic field and find it to be ~ 2 microgauss, about five times smaller than that typical for spirals.