VALES – III. The calibration between the dust continuum and interstellar gas content of star-forming galaxies. (27th February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hughes, T. M.; Ibar, E.; Villanueva, V.; Aravena, M.; Baes, M.; Bourne, N.; Cooray, A.; Davies, L. J. M.; Driver, S.; Dunne, L.; Dye, S.; Eales, S.; Furlanetto, C.; Herrera-Camus, R.; Ivison, R. J.; van Kampen, E.; Lara-López, M. A.; Maddox, S.; Michałowski, M. J.; Oteo, I.; Smith, D.; Smith, M. W. L.; Valiante, E.; van der Werf, P.; Viaene, S.; Xue, Y. Q.
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 468:Number 1(2017:Jun.)
• Page Start: L103
• Page End: L107
• Publication Date: 2017-02-27
• Subjects: ISM: lines and bands -- galaxies: ISM -- submillimetre: galaxies; Astronomy -- Research -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slx033
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-3933

Abstract

Abstract: We present the calibration between the dust continuum luminosity and interstellar gas content obtained from the Valparaíso ALMA Line Emission Survey (VALES) sample of 67 main-sequence star-forming galaxies at 0.02 < z < 0.35. We use CO(1–0) observations from the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array to trace the molecular gas mass, M H 2, and estimate the rest-frame monochromatic luminosity at 850 μm, $L_{\nu _{850}}$, by extrapolating the dust continuum from magphys modelling of the far-ultraviolet to submillimetre spectral energy distribution sampled by the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. Adopting αCO = 6.5 (K km s −1 pc 2 ) −1, the average ratio of $L_{\nu _{850}}$ / M H 2 = (6.4 ± 1.4)× 10 19 erg s −1 Hz −1 M$_{{\odot }}^{-1}$, in excellent agreement with literature values. We obtain a linear fit of $\log _{10} \left({M}_{\mathrm{H}_{2}}/{\mathrm{M}_{{\odot }}}\right) = (0.92\pm 0.02) \log _{10} (L_{\nu _{850}}/{\mathrm{erg}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}\, \mathrm{Hz}^{-1}})-(17.31\pm 0.59)$ . We provide relations between $L_{\nu _{850}}$, M H 2 and M ISM when combining the VALES and literature samples, and adopting a Galactic αCO value.