The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)
Feedback in Emerging Extragalactic Star Clusters, FEAST: The Relation between 3.3 μm Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission and Star Formation Rate Traced by Ionized Gas in NGC 628
- Benjamin Gregg,
- Daniela Calzetti,
- Angela Adamo,
- Varun Bajaj,
- Jenna E. Ryon,
- Sean T. Linden,
- Matteo Correnti,
- Michele Cignoni,
- Matteo Messa,
- Elena Sabbi,
- John S. Gallagher,
- Kathryn Grasha,
- Alex Pedrini,
- Robert A. Gutermuth,
- Jens Melinder,
- Ralf Kotulla,
- Gustavo Pérez,
- Mark R. Krumholz,
- Arjan Bik,
- Göran Östlin,
- Kelsey E. Johnson,
- Giacomo Bortolini,
- Linda J. Smith,
- Monica Tosi,
- Subhransu Maji,
- Helena Faustino Vieira
Affiliations
- Benjamin Gregg
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003, USA ; [email protected]
- Daniela Calzetti
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003, USA ; [email protected]
- Angela Adamo
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Varun Bajaj
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Jenna E. Ryon
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Sean T. Linden
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003, USA ; [email protected]; Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
- Matteo Correnti
- ORCiD
- INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma , Via Frascati 33, 00078, Monteporzio Catone, Rome, Italy; ASI-Space Science Data Center , Via del Politecnico, I-00133, Rome, Italy
- Michele Cignoni
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics—University of Pisa , Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy; INFN , Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy; INAF—Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna , Via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
- Matteo Messa
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna , Via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
- Elena Sabbi
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- John S. Gallagher
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison , 475 N. Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Kathryn Grasha
- ORCiD
- Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia; Visiting Fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Alex Pedrini
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Robert A. Gutermuth
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003, USA ; [email protected]
- Jens Melinder
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Ralf Kotulla
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison , 475 N. Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Gustavo Pérez
- ORCiD
- College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts , 140 Governors Drive, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Mark R. Krumholz
- ORCiD
- Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia
- Arjan Bik
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Göran Östlin
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Kelsey E. Johnson
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
- Giacomo Bortolini
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Physics—University of Pisa , Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy
- Linda J. Smith
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Monica Tosi
- ORCiD
- INAF—Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna , Via Gobetti 93/3, I-40129 Bologna, Italy
- Subhransu Maji
- ORCiD
- College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts , 140 Governors Drive, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Helena Faustino Vieira
- ORCiD
- Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics Research and Technology (CHART), School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad54b4
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 971,
no. 1
p. 115
Abstract
We present maps of ionized gas (traced by Pa α and Br α ) and 3.3 μ m polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 628, derived from new JWST/NIRCam data from the Feedback in Emerging extrAgalactic Star clusTers (FEAST) survey. With this data, we investigate and calibrate the relation between 3.3 μ m PAH emission and star formation rate (SFR) in and around emerging young star clusters (eYSCs) on a scale of ∼40 pc. We find a tight (correlation coefficient ρ ∼ 0.9) sublinear (power-law exponent α ∼ 0.75) relation between the 3.3 μ m PAH luminosity surface density and SFR traced by Br α for compact, cospatial (within 0.″16 or ∼7 pc) peaks in Pa α , Br α , and 3.3 μ m (eYSC–I). The scatter in the relationship does not correlate well with variations in local interstellar medium metallicity, due to a radial metallicity gradient, but rather is likely due to stochastic sampling of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and variations in the PAH heating and age of our sources. The deviation from a linear relation may be explained by PAH destruction in more intense ionizing environments, variations in age, and IMF stochasticity at intermediate to low luminosities. We test our results with various continuum subtraction techniques using combinations of NIRCam bands and find that they remain robust with only minor differences in the derived slope and intercept. An unexpected discrepancy is identified between the relations of hydrogen recombination lines (Pa α versus Br α ; H α versus Br α ).
Keywords
- Spiral galaxies
- Interstellar dust
- Interstellar medium
- James Webb Space Telescope
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- Star formation
