Calibrating [OII] star-formation rates at z>1 from dual H\alpha-[OII] imaging from HiZELS

TL;DR

This study calibrates the relationship between H extalpha ext and [OII] emission lines at z=1.47, revealing systematic differences in dust attenuation and implications for star formation rate estimates in high-redshift galaxies.

Contribution

It provides a new calibration of [OII]-based star formation rates at z>1, accounting for dust attenuation differences from local relations.

Findings

[OII] emitters at z=1.47 have lower dust attenuation than local galaxies.

The H extalpha/[OII] ratio correlates with luminosity similarly to local galaxies.

[OII] selection biases towards less dusty galaxies at high redshift.

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between H\alpha\ and [OII](\lambda 3727) emission in faint star-forming galaxies at z=1.47 with dust uncorrected star formation rates (SFRs) down to 1.4 Msun/yr, using data in two narrow-bands from WFCAM/UKIRT and Suprime-Cam/Subaru. A stacking analysis allows us to investigate H\alpha\ emission flux from bright [OII] emitters as well as faint ones for which H\alpha\ is not individually detected, and to compare them with a large sample of local galaxies. We find that there is a clear, positive correlation between the average H\alpha\ and [OII] luminosities for [OII] emitters at z=1.47, with its slope being consistent with the local relation. [OII] emitters at z=1.47 have lower mean observed ratios of H\alpha/[OII] suggesting a small but systematic offset (at 2.8\sigma\ significance) towards lower values of dust attenuation, A(H\alpha)~0.35, than local galaxies. This confirms that [OII] selection tends to pick up galaxies which are significantly less dusty on average than H\alpha\ selected ones, with the difference being higher at z=1.47 than at z=0. The discrepancy of the observed line ratios between [OII] emitters at z=1.47 and the local galaxies may in part be due to the samples having different metallicities. However, we demonstrate that metallicity is unlikely to be the main cause. Therefore, it is important to take into account that the relations for the dust correction which are derived using H\alpha\ emitter samples, and frequently used in many studies of high-z galaxies, may overestimate the intrinsic SFRs of [OII]-selected galaxies, and that surveys of [OII] emission galaxies are likely to miss dusty populations.