Panchromatic star formation rate indicators and their uncertainties

TL;DR

This paper reviews various methods for estimating galaxy star formation rates across different wavelengths, discussing their assumptions, advantages, limitations, and suitability for high-redshift galaxy studies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of panchromatic SFR indicators, highlighting their uncertainties and guiding their application in high-redshift galaxy research.

Findings

Different SFR indicators have unique advantages and limitations.

Infrared and ultraviolet indicators are crucial for high-redshift studies.

Combining multi-wavelength data improves SFR estimation accuracy.

Abstract

The star formation rate (SFR) is a fundamental property of galaxies and it is crucial to understand the build-up of their stellar content, their chemical evolution, and energetic feedback. The SFR of galaxies is typically obtained by observing the emission by young stellar populations directly in the ultraviolet, the optical nebular line emission from gas ionized by newly-formed massive stars, the reprocessed emission by dust in the infrared range, or by combining observations at different wavelengths and fitting the full spectral energy distributions of galaxies. In this brief review we describe the assumptions, advantages and limitations of different SFR indicators, and we discuss the most promising SFR indicators for high-redshift studies.