Calibrating Photometric Mid-Infrared Star Formation Rates for JWST
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arXiv
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| Autori principali: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Natura: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Alberts, Stacey Rieke, George H. Shivaei, Irene Ji, Zhiyuan Oesch, Pascal Brammer, Gabriel Helton, Jakob M. Lyu, Jianwei Nelson, Erica J. Reddy, Naveen Rinaldi, Pierluigi Sun, Yang Whitaker, Katherine E. Williams, Christina C. Willmer, Christopher N. A. Wuyts, Stijn |
| author_facet | Alberts, Stacey Rieke, George H. Shivaei, Irene Ji, Zhiyuan Oesch, Pascal Brammer, Gabriel Helton, Jakob M. Lyu, Jianwei Nelson, Erica J. Reddy, Naveen Rinaldi, Pierluigi Sun, Yang Whitaker, Katherine E. Williams, Christina C. Willmer, Christopher N. A. Wuyts, Stijn |
| contents | The mid-infrared (IR) spectrum of galaxies has a long history as a valuable proxy for the dust-obscured star formation rate (SFR) in massive galaxies. Now, with JWST, we can explore the mid-IR's full potential as a SFR tracer over four orders of magnitude in total infrared luminosity (9<~log LIR/Lo<~13). First, combining the SMILES and FRESCO surveys, we evaluate MIRI photometry against the Pa-alpha emission line - a gold standard SFR indicator - in Main Sequence (MS) galaxies at cosmic noon. We find the rest-frame 6-8um luminosity has a steeply superlinear relation with SFR(Pa-alpha) below ~8 Mo/yr, in contrast with the unity slope seen in coeval massive galaxies. We derive broken power-law SFR indicators from single-band MIRI photometry plus a representative dust template, with a scatter typical of IR SFRs (~0.2-0.3 dex). Despite the break in the mid-IR behavior and our simplifying assumption of a single dust SED, we next successfully formulate a UV+IR composite relation (scatter ~0.15 dex) under the usual assumption of energy balance. This implies that the rest-frame 6-8um primarily tracks the global dust-obscuration fraction - which decreases rapidly at log M*/Mo<~10 - rather than reflecting a deficit in PAH abundances at low mass. Our results thus support MIRI photometry as a robust SFR proxy at log M*/Mo>~9 up to z~3. Finally, extending to local and z>~1 ultraluminous infrared galaxies not represented in SMILES, we examine when Pa-alpha and the IR reliably track SFR in the bright regime. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_01326 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Calibrating Photometric Mid-Infrared Star Formation Rates for JWST Alberts, Stacey Rieke, George H. Shivaei, Irene Ji, Zhiyuan Oesch, Pascal Brammer, Gabriel Helton, Jakob M. Lyu, Jianwei Nelson, Erica J. Reddy, Naveen Rinaldi, Pierluigi Sun, Yang Whitaker, Katherine E. Williams, Christina C. Willmer, Christopher N. A. Wuyts, Stijn Astrophysics of Galaxies The mid-infrared (IR) spectrum of galaxies has a long history as a valuable proxy for the dust-obscured star formation rate (SFR) in massive galaxies. Now, with JWST, we can explore the mid-IR's full potential as a SFR tracer over four orders of magnitude in total infrared luminosity (9<~log LIR/Lo<~13). First, combining the SMILES and FRESCO surveys, we evaluate MIRI photometry against the Pa-alpha emission line - a gold standard SFR indicator - in Main Sequence (MS) galaxies at cosmic noon. We find the rest-frame 6-8um luminosity has a steeply superlinear relation with SFR(Pa-alpha) below ~8 Mo/yr, in contrast with the unity slope seen in coeval massive galaxies. We derive broken power-law SFR indicators from single-band MIRI photometry plus a representative dust template, with a scatter typical of IR SFRs (~0.2-0.3 dex). Despite the break in the mid-IR behavior and our simplifying assumption of a single dust SED, we next successfully formulate a UV+IR composite relation (scatter ~0.15 dex) under the usual assumption of energy balance. This implies that the rest-frame 6-8um primarily tracks the global dust-obscuration fraction - which decreases rapidly at log M*/Mo<~10 - rather than reflecting a deficit in PAH abundances at low mass. Our results thus support MIRI photometry as a robust SFR proxy at log M*/Mo>~9 up to z~3. Finally, extending to local and z>~1 ultraluminous infrared galaxies not represented in SMILES, we examine when Pa-alpha and the IR reliably track SFR in the bright regime. |
| title | Calibrating Photometric Mid-Infrared Star Formation Rates for JWST |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01326 |