# Radio observations confirm young stellar populations in local analogues to $z\sim5$ Lyman break galaxies

## TL;DR

This study uses radio observations of local galaxies mimicking $z extasciitilde5$ star-forming galaxies to explore their young stellar populations and star formation properties, revealing high surface densities and cautioning on SFR calibrations for young stars.

## Contribution

It provides new radio-based star formation rate calibrations for very young stellar populations and offers improved size constraints for these galaxies.

## Key findings

- Radio-derived SFR is about half of Hα-based SFR.
- Galaxies have very high star formation rate surface densities.
- Young stellar populations lack strong supernova-driven synchrotron emission.

## Abstract

We present radio observations at 1.5 GHz of 32 local objects selected to reproduce the physical properties of $z\sim5$ star-forming galaxies. We also report non-detections of five such sources in the sub-millimetre. We find a radio-derived star formation rate which is typically half that derived from H$\alpha$ emission for the same objects. These observations support previous indications that we are observing galaxies with a young dominant stellar population, which has not yet established a strong supernova-driven synchrotron continuum. We stress caution when applying star formation rate calibrations to stellar populations younger than 100 Myr. We calibrate the conversions for younger galaxies, which are dominated by a thermal radio emission component. We improve the size constraints for these sources, compared to previous unresolved ground-based optical observations. Their physical size limits indicate very high star formation rate surface densities, several orders of magnitude higher than the local galaxy population. In typical nearby galaxies, this would imply the presence of galaxy-wide winds. Given the young stellar populations, it is unclear whether a mechanism exists in our sources that can deposit sufficient kinetic energy into the interstellar medium to drive such outflows.