The UV-IR SED of Starburst Galaxies

While there are many theoretical and empirical models out there for the calculation of a galaxy's spectral energy distribution (SED), very few treat this calculation in a self consistent manner. In our models we have tried to do so for the most active of galaxies - Starburst galaxies, linking together the stellar, gas and dust emission in simple, yet self consistent models. For a full description of these models see Groves et al. (2008) ApJS,176,438 or contact me (Brent Groves) at brent_at_strw.leidenuniv.nl.

Basically these models link together the stellar spectrophotometric evolutionary code Starburst99 with the photoionization code MAPPINGS III and simple teory of stellar wind blown bubbles to determine the evolution of the UV-IR SED (including emission lines) of star-forming regions based on the physics of stellar evolution and the surrounding ISM. These models are part of a continuing series by myself, Prof. Mike Dopita and associates.

The full-colour paper describing the model can be found here(5.1MB)
While the full model dataset can be found here: Cmodel.fits (4.1MB)


IDL datasets

FOr ease of use and analysis, I have exported the Starburst SED models into IDL save files (Note that other formats are available on request). Each file contains, the MAPPINGS III central wavelengths, frequencies and bin widths (in frequency) as well as the parameters associated with the model, as well as the main model itself. Also included are brief comments/README files describing the dataset. The parameters are exactly as in the papers, and can be added to the main model spectra in "Cparam_models", scaled by the factors (ie f_UCHII) as described in the paper.Once a fit is found, the scaling of the model spectrum to the observed spectrum will give the star formation rate. Also available on request are programs for plotting and analysing the data, and soon a Fitting routine will becme available.

  • Cparam_models.save The main SED components, with the HII & PDR rregions for each metallicity, C parameter, and pressure ( 4th parameter=HII & PDR, that is the total covering fraction)
  • UCHIIdata.save The UCHII emission, for the three metallicities, as discussed in the paper.
  • Oldstardata.save Emission from "Old" stellar population, that is a 10-100 Myr old population with a constantSFR of 1 Mo/yr, for each metallicity.
  • Diffuse_emission.save This is the emission from the diffuse dust which surrounds both the starburst and the old stellar population. This should be closely linked with the external scren attenuation.
  • Attenuationdata.save The external screen attenuation used within the paper. While any attenuation law can be applied, we have included here our own from the paper, with Rv=A(V)/E(B-V)=3.1, along with the scaling needed to obtain certain A(V)s.

Extended Datasets
In addition, below you will find the full model sets used to create the above models. These are split up into each metallicity, giving the emission from both HII and PDRs at each Cparameter, pressure and age considered with the paper. The spectra are for instantaneous bursts, of the given age, metallicity and cluster size (Mcl), surrounded by a medium of pressure P/k (ponk) giving a certain HII region radius as defined in the paper. Note that as we asusme a stocahstic cluster distribution we have NO truncation of the IMF. All spectra are in erg/s/Hz


I also have all the model data as ascii files for thos who do not like the IDL system. These files are slightl larger the the IDL save files, but are grouped in the same way. The details of each file are listed in their respective headers.

The main C parameter SED components, seperated into the 5 metalicity bins.

This page was last modified on 11 July 2009.