Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-09-26
Astrophys.J.651:L111-L116,2006
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
5 pages, 3 figures; Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
Scientific paper
10.1086/509722
Using data obtained for twelve galaxies as part of the {\it Spitzer} Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT)-SINGS radio continuum survey, we study how star formation activity affects the far-infrared (FIR)--radio correlation {\it within} galaxies by testing a phenomenological model, which describes the radio image as a smeared version of the FIR image. The physical basis of this description is that cosmic-ray (CR) electrons will diffuse measurably farther than the mean free path of dust-heating photons before decaying by synchrotron radiation. This description works well in general. Galaxies with higher infrared surface brightnesses have best-fit smoothing scale-lengths of a few hundred parsecs, substantially shorter than those for lower surface brightness galaxies. We interpret this result to suggest that galaxies with higher disk averaged star formation rates have had a recent episode of enhanced star formation and are characterized by a higher fraction of young CR electrons that have traveled only a few hundred parsecs from their acceleration sites in supernova remnants compared to galaxies with lower star formation activity.
Jr.
Armus Lee
Bendo George J.
Braun Robert
Buckalew Brent
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