The Diverse Properties of the Most Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies Discovered by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer

Abstract

We report on the properties of a sample of ultraviolet luminous galaxies (UVLGs) selected by matching the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Surveys with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Third Data Release. Out of 25362 galaxies between 0.0<z<0.3 detected by GALEX, there are 215 galaxies with L>2x10^10 L_solar at 1530 Angstroms (observed wavelength). The properties of this population are well correlated with ultraviolet surface brightness. We find that the galaxies with low UV surface brightness are primarily large spiral systems with a mixture of old and young stellar populations, while the high surface brightness galaxies consist primarily of compact starburst systems. In terms of the behavior of surface brightness with luminosity, size with luminosity, the mass-metallicity relation, and other parameters, the compact UVLGs clearly depart from the trends established by the full sample of galaxies. The subset of compact UVLGs with the highest surface brightness (``supercompact UVLGs'') have characteristics that are remarkably similar to Lyman Break Galaxies at higher redshift. They are much more luminous than typical local ultraviolet-bright starburst galaxies and blue compact dwarf galaxies. They have metallicities that are systematically lower than normal galaxies of the same stellar mass, indicating that they are less chemically evolved. In all these respects, they are the best local analogs for Lyman Break Galaxies.

Fixed error in ObjID column of Table 1. 30 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for the GALEX special issue of ApJS. Abstract abridged

References in corpus (5)

• The Mass-Metallicity Relation at z~2
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies
• The Stellar, Gas and Dynamical Masses of Star-Forming Galaxies at z~2
• Statistical Properties of the GALEX/SDSS matched source catalogs, and classification of the UV sources
• Far-Ultraviolet & X-ray Observations of VV 114: Feedback in a Local Analog to Lyman Break Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (42)

• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Star Formation, AGN Fraction, and the Luminosity/Mass-Metallicity Relation
• Clues to the Origin of the Mass-Metallicity Relation: Dependence on Star Formation Rate and Galaxy Size
• The UV-Optical Color Magnitude Diagram II: Physical Properties and Morphological Evolution On and Off of a Star-Forming Sequence
• A Local Clue to the Reionization of the Universe
• HST morphologies of local Lyman break galaxy analogs I: Evidence for starbursts triggered by merging
• The Lyman-alpha Reference Sample: I. Survey outline and first results for Markarian 259
• A Critical Look at the Mass-Metallicity-SFR Relation in the Local Universe. I. An Improved Analysis Framework and Confounding Systematics
• The Local Universe as Seen in Far-Infrared and in Far-Ultraviolet: A Global Point of View on the Local Recent Star Formation
• Lyman alpha Emitting Galaxies in the Nearby Universe
• The Effect of Galactic Properties on the Escape Fraction of Ionizing Photons
• Near-Infrared Imaging of a z=6.42 Quasar Host Galaxy With the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3
• Extreme Emission-Line Galaxies in SDSS. I. Empirical and model-based calibrations of chemical abundances
• Extinction Corrected Star Formation Rates Empirically Derived from Ultraviolet-Optical Colors
• The Young and the Dustless: Interpreting Radio Observations of UltraViolet Luminous Galaxies
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: II. What drives central starbursts at z~0?
• The mass-metallicity relation of Lyman-break analogues and its dependence on galaxy properties
• An OSIRIS study of the gas kinematics in a sample of UV-selected galaxies: Evidence of "Hot and Bothered" starbursts in the local Universe
• Star-forming clumps in the Lyman Alpha Reference Sample of galaxies -- I. Photometric analysis and clumpiness
• Structures of Local Galaxies Compared to High Redshift Star-forming Galaxies
• A Population of Metal-Poor Galaxies with ~L* Luminosities at Intermediate Redshifts
• VLT/XShooter spectroscopy of Lyman Break Analogs: direct method O/H abundances and nitrogen enhancements
• Molecular gas properties of UV-luminous star-forming galaxies at low redshift
• ISM conditions in z~0.2 Lyman-Break Analogs
• A Tale of Three Galaxies: Anomalous Dust Properties in IRASF10398+1455, IRASF21013-0739 and SDSSJ0808+3948
• On the X-ray Spectral Energy Distributions of Star-Forming Galaxies: the 0.3-30 keV Spectrum of the Low-Metallicity Starburst Galaxy VV 114
• Local Analogs to High-Redshift Galaxies: I. Characterization of Dust Emission and Star Formation History
• Resolving the Ultra-Luminous X-ray Sources in the Ly$\alpha$ Emitting Galaxy Haro 11
• Studying Large and Small Scale Environments of Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies
• The Star-Forming Interstellar Medium of Lyman Break Galaxy Analogs
• Compact radio emission from z~0.2 X-ray bright AGN
• Expanding on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation in Dwarf Galaxies with MUSE
• Direct Method Gas Phase Oxygen Abundances of 4 Lyman Break Analogs
• Radio observations confirm young stellar populations in local analogues to $z\sim 5$ Lyman break galaxies
• Gas Metallicity of Ram-Pressure Stripped Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift with MUSE Data
• The evolution and dependence of the local mass-metallicity relation
• UV and NIR size of the low-mass field galaxies: the UV compact galaxies
• The Environment of Lyman Break Analogues (ELBA) survey: Star-forming galaxies in small groups
• Hubble Space Telescope Captures UGC~12591: Bulge/Disc Properties, Star Formation and `Missing Baryons' Census in a Very Massive and Fast Spinning Hybrid Galaxy
• Low-redshift analogues of cosmic noon galaxies as laboratories for clumpy star formation
• Observational biases on rotation curves from IFU data at cosmic noon
• Tracing ionized gas kinematics in Lyman-Break Analogs. Implications for star formation compactness and outflow properties
• Far-Ultraviolet Observations of Starburst Galaxies with FUSE: Galactic Feedback in the Local Universe