Variation of the Nebular Dust Attenuation Curve with the Properties of Local Star-forming Galaxies

Abstract

We use a sample of $78,340$ star-forming galaxies at $z\simeq 0.04-0.1$ from the SDSS DR8 survey to calculate the average nebular dust attenuation curve and its variation with the physical properties of galaxies. Using the first four low-order Balmer emission lines (H$\alpha$, H$\beta$, H$\gamma$, H$\delta$) detected in the composite spectrum of all galaxies in the sample, we derive a nebular attenuation curve in the range of $0.41\mu$m to $0.66\mu$m that has a similar shape and normalization to that of the Galactic extinction curve (Milky Way curve), the SMC curve and the nebular attenuation curve derived recently for typical star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2$. We divide the galaxies into bins of stellar mass, gas-phase metallicity, and specific star-formation rate, and derive the nebular attenuation curve in each of these bins. This analysis indicates that there is very little variation in the shape of the nebular dust attenuation curve with the properties used to bin the galaxies, and suggests a near universal shape of the nebular dust attenuation curve at least among the galaxies and the range of properties considered in our sample.

arXiv comment8 pages, 6 figures, This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The version of record of this article is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/506/3/3588/6313297

References in corpus (56)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• On the variation of the Initial Mass Function
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Host Galaxies of AGN
• The Origin of the Mass--Metallicity Relation: Insights from 53,000 Star-Forming Galaxies in the SDSS
• The physical properties of star forming galaxies in the low redshift universe
• Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
• Dust Grain Size Distributions and Extinction in the Milky Way, LMC, and SMC
• Interstellar Dust Grains
• Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. IV. The Silicate-Graphite-PAH Model in the Post-Spitzer Era
• A Simple Model for the Absorption of Starlight by Dust in Galaxies
• The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III
• Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. II. The Diffuse Interstellar Medium
• A Quantitative Comparison of SMC, LMC, and Milky Way UV to NIR Extinction Curves
• The SINS survey: SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy of z ~ 2 Star-forming Galaxies
• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• The Dust Opacity of Star-Forming Galaxies
• An Analysis of the Shapes of Interstellar Extinction Curves. V. The IR-Through-UV Curve Morphology
• Dust-Corrected Star Formation Rates of Galaxies. II. Combinations of Ultraviolet and Infrared Tracers
• Dust-Corrected Star Formation Rates of Galaxies. I. Combinations of H-alpha and Infrared Tracers
• Dust Attenuation Curves in the Local Universe: Demographics and New Laws for Star-forming Galaxies and High-redshift Analogs
• Reddening and Star Formation in Starburst Galaxies
• On Star Formation Rates and Star Formation Histories of Galaxies out to z ~ 3
• The Dust Attenuation Law in Distant Galaxies: Evidence for Variation with Spectral Type
• Multiple Scattering in Clumpy Media. II. Galactic Environments
• The Dust Attenuation Law in Galaxies
• A CANDELS - 3D-HST Synergy: Resolved Star Formation Patterns at 0.7 < z < 1.5
• The FMOS-COSMOS survey of star-forming galaxies at z ~ 1.6. I. Hα-based star formation rates and dust extinction
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling II: The challenge of comparing galaxy evolution models to observations
• Empirical determination of the shape of dust attenuation curves in star-forming galaxies
• Direct measurements of dust attenuation in z~1.5 star-forming galaxies from 3D-HST: Implications for dust geometry and star formation rates
• GOODS-Herschel:dust attenuation properties of UV selected high redshift galaxies
• Insights into the content and spatial distribution of dust from the integrated spectral properties of galaxies
• Breaking the Curve with CANDELS: A Bayesian Approach to Reveal the Non-Universality of the Dust-Attenuation Law at High Redshift
• The MOSDEF Survey: Direct Observational Constraints on the Ionizing Photon Production Efficiency, ${\xi }_{\mathrm{ion}}$, at z~2
• Mapping dust through emission and absorption in nearby galaxies
• A Theory for the Variation of Dust Attenuation Laws in Galaxies
• The MOSDEF Survey: the Variation of the Dust Attenuation Curve with Metallicity
• Rotational Disruption of Dust Grains by Radiative Torques in Strong Radiation Fields
• Dust attenuation in disk-dominated galaxies: evidence for the 2175A dust feature
• Characterizing Dust Attenuation in Local Star Forming Galaxies: UV and Optical Reddening
• The MOSDEF Survey: The First Direct Measurements of the Nebular Dust Attenuation Curve at High Redshift
• MOIRCS Deep Survey. VI. Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of K-Selected Star-Forming Galaxies at z~2
• GOODS-HERSCHEL: evidence for a UV extinction bump in galaxies at z > 1
• Radiative Transfer Model of Dust Attenuation Curves in Clumpy, Galactic Environments
• Ultraviolet through Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions from 1000 SDSS Galaxies: Dust Attenuation
• Dust attenuation and Halpha emission in a sample of galaxies observed with Herschel at $0.6<z<1.6$
• New Ultraviolet Extinction Curves for Interstellar Dust in M31
• Characterizing Dust Attenuation in Local Star-Forming Galaxies: Near-Infrared Reddening and Normalization
• On the different levels of dust attenuation to nebular and stellar light in star-forming galaxies
• Optical vs. infrared studies of dusty galaxies and AGN: (I) Nebular emission lines
• The Dust Attenuation Curve versus Stellar Mass for Emission Line Galaxies at z ~ 2
• Extinction and Dust Geometry in M83 HII Regions: A Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 Study
• Dust attenuation of the nebular regions and optical emission lines of $z\sim 2$ star-forming galaxies
• Can Dust Injected by SNe Explain the NIR-MIR Excess in Young Massive Stellar Clusters?
• Emission-Line Diagnostics of Galaxy Evolution with NGST

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Paschen-line Constraints on Dust Attenuation and Star Formation at z~1-3 with JWST/NIRSpec
• The Impact of Star-Formation-Rate Surface Density on the Electron Density and Ionization Parameter of High-Redshift Galaxies
• A Bayesian Population Model for the Observed Dust Attenuation in Galaxies
• IR SED and Dust Masses of Sub-solar Metallicity Galaxies at z~2.3
• Systematic biases in determining dust attenuation curves through galaxy SED fitting
• Exploring the Correlation between $\mathrm{H}\alpha$-to-UV Ratio and Burstiness for Typical Star-forming Galaxies at $z\sim 2$
• Physical properties of strong 1 < z < 3 Balmer and Paschen lines emitters observed with JWST
• The need for multicomponent dust attenuation in modeling nebular emission: Constraints from SDSS-IV MaNGA
• The JWST/AURORA Survey: Multiple Balmer and Paschen Emission Lines for Individual Star-forming Galaxies at z=1.5-4.4. I. A Diversity of Nebular Attenuation Curves and Evidence for Non-Unity Dust Covering Fractions
• Nebular Dust Attenuation with the Balmer and Paschen Lines based on the MaNGA Survey