The Stellar Population and Star Formation Properties of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies

Abstract

We study the stellar populations, star formation histories and star formation properties for a sample of blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDs) selected by cross-correlating the Gil de Paz et al. (2003) sample with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6). The sample includes 31 BCDs, which span a large range in galactic parameters. Using a stellar population synthesis method, we derive the stellar populations and reconstruct the star formation histories for these BCDs. Our studies confirm that BCDs are not young systems experiencing their first star formation but old systems undergoing a starburst activity. The stellar mass-weighted ages can be as old as 10 Gyr while the luminosity-weighted ages might be up to $\sim 3$ orders of magnitude younger ($\sim 10$ Myr) for most galaxies. Based on multi-wavelength data, we also study the integrated star formation properties. The SFR for our sample galaxies spans nearly 3 orders of magnitude, from a few $10^{-3}$ to $\sim 1M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$, with the median value of $\sim 0.1M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$. We find that about 90% BCDs in our sample have their birthrate parameter (the ratio of the current SFR to the averaged past SFR) $b>2-3$. We further discuss correlations of the current SFR with the integrated galactic stellar mass and explore the connection between SFR and metallicity.

Accepted by AJ

References in corpus (7)

• Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1 : The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• An H-alpha Imaging Survey of Galaxies in the Local 11 Mpc Volume
• I Zw 18 revisited with HST/ACS and Cepheids: New Distance and Age
• Search for Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies During Quiescence
• Ultracompact Blue Dwarf Galaxies: Hubble Space Telescope Imaging and Stellar Population Analysis
• The H alpha Galaxy Survey V. The star formation history of late-type galaxies
• The Nearby and Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxy CGCG 269-049

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Outside-in Shrinking of the Star-forming Disk of Dwarf Irregular Galaxies
• In-spiraling Clumps in Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies
• The Impact of Star Formation Histories on Stellar Mass Estimation: Implications from the Local Group Dwarf Galaxies
• Local Tadpole Galaxies
• Local starburst galaxies and their descendants
• Keck Observations of the Young Metal-Poor Host Galaxy of the Super-Chandrasekhar-Mass Type Ia Supernova SN 2007if
• A Study on the Chemical Properties of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies
• Galactic fountains and outflows in star forming dwarf galaxies: ISM expulsion and chemical enrichment
• The initial mass function and star formation law in the outer disc of NGC 2915
• Auto-consistent metallicity and star formation history of the nearest blue compact dwarf galaxy NGC 6789
• Physical Properties of Local Star-Forming Analogues to z~5 Lyman Break Galaxies
• Stellar Populations of a Sample of Optically Selected AGN-host Dwarf Galaxies
• HI imaging of dwarf star-forming galaxies: Masses, morphologies and gas deficiencies
• Tidal interaction, star formation and chemical evolution in blue compact dwarf galaxy Mrk 22
• Radial stellar populations of AGN-host dwarf galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA survey
• The Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey VIII : Discovery of an Isolated Dwarf Galaxy in the Local Volume
• Gas and dust in the BCD galaxy VII Zw 403 (UGC 6456)
• IFUM Integrated Field Spectroscopy of Ten M104 Satellite Galaxy Candidates
• AVID: Formation and evolution of a coalesced major merger of late-type dwarf galaxies (VCC 479) on the outskirts of the Virgo cluster