| Description |
We propose to use PACS to characterize the dust emission in UV-selected starburst galaxies at z<0.3 from our on-going survey of Local Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs). This survey was specifically designed to find and study rare, nearby galaxies from the GALEX all-sky survey that are most similar to the population of Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) at z>2-3. The LBAs are similar to LBGs in terms of mass, SFR, age, metallicity, attenuation, size, morphology, kinematics, and ISM. Because of these remarkable similarities, we can perform a much more straightforward comparison of their properties. Specifically, we will use PACS to sample the far-IR dust emission from 28 LBAs, and study its relation to other physical properties of these starbursts to a level of accuracy that can not be achieved for similar UV-selected starbursts at high redshift. We will address the following questions:(1) What are the contributions from hot/cold dust emission to the total (UV+IR) energy budget, and how do these compare with LBGs? (2) How do LBAs relate to their IR-luminous counterparts in the local Universe? (3) Do LBAs follow the locally calibrated beta-IRX relation that is commonly used to calculate dust-corrected SFRs at high redshift?(4) Can we understand offsets from the beta-IRX relation in terms of other properties (e.g., complex star formation histories or modified extinction laws)? (5) What are the star formation efficiencies in LBAs as a function of their triggering mechanism, and are these similar to those inferred for LBGs?Combined with our existing broad based, multi-wavelength observations from GALEX, SDSS, HST, Spitzer, VLT, Keck, XMM, and the VLA these data will provide crucial information on the interplay of stars, gas and dust in the LBG analogs. This will aid us in our understanding of their UV-luminous counterparts at high redshift, just as our understanding of local ULIRGs has been fundamental for the study of the most IR-luminous sources at high redshift. |
