Converting Hα Luminosities into Star Formation Rates

Pflamm-Altenburg, J.; Weidner, C.; Kroupa, P.
Bibliographical reference

Pathways Through an Eclectic Universe ASP Conference Series, Vol. 390, proceedings of the conference held 23-27 April, 2007 at Santiago del Teide, Tenerife, Spain. Edited by J. H. Knapen, T. J. Mahoney, and A. Vazdekis San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2008., p.196

Advertised on:
6
2008
Number of authors
3
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The recent finding that the integrated galactic initial stellar mass function, comprising all newly formed stars in all young star clusters, has, through its dependence on the star formation rate, a steeper slope in the high mass regime than the underlying canonical initial mass function of each star cluster individually offers new insights into the galactic star formation process. The classical linear relation between the star formation rate and the resultant Hα luminosity is broken and star formation rates are always underestimated. Our new relation is likely to lead to a revision of cosmological star formation history.