What shapes the far-infrared spectral energy distributions of galaxies?

In Safarzadeh, Hayward, Ferguson, & Somerville (2015, submitted), we performed principal component analysis (PCA) of the FIR SEDs of a suite of simulations of isolated and merging galaxies. The SEDs were generated by perfoming dust radiative transfer on them using the Sunrise code. The PCA results indicated that the IR luminosity and dust mass are the primary determinants of the FIR SED, and the FIR SED of a galaxy could be well recovered by using these variables to predict its principal component coefficients. Based on this analysis, we created a set of galaxy FIR SED templates (shown on the right) that depends on two parameters, the IR luminosity and dust mass. Because these templates are valuable for predicting FIR SEDs in semi-analytic models and fitting observed SEDs to determine the IR luminosity and predict photometry at unobserved wavelengths, we have made them publicly available as an ASCII table that can be downloaded here. For convenience, we have also provided a Python script that can be used to load the templates and to find the SED template that is closest to the desired (L_IR, M_dust) point in the L_IR-M_dust plane.

© Christopher C. Hayward 2015-2016; all text may not be reproduced without permission. Images and animations can be used for non-commercial purposes with proper attribution. Last updated December 13, 2016.