2017MNRAS.472.1239B

We use Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of H30α (231.90 GHz) emission from the low-metallicity dwarf galaxy NGC 5253 to measure the star formation rate (SFR) within the galaxy and to test the reliability of SFRs derived from other commonly used metrics. The H30α emission, which originates mainly from the central starburst, yields a photoionizing photon production rate of (1.9 ± 0.3) x 10⁵² s^–1 and an SFR of 0.087 ± 0.013 M_☉ yr^–1 based on conversions that account for the low metallicity of the galaxy and for stellar rotation. Among the other star formation metrics we examined, the SFR calculated from the total infrared flux was statistically equivalent to the values from the H30α data. The SFR based on a previously published version of the H α flux that was extinction corrected using Paα and Paβ lines was lower than but also statistically similar to the H30α value. The mid-infrared (22 µm) flux density and the composite star formation tracer based on H α and mid-infrared emission give SFRs that were significantly higher because the dust emission appears unusually hot compared to typical spiral galaxies. Conversely, the 70 and 160 µm flux densities yielded SFRs lower than the H30α value, although the SFRs from the 70 µm and H30α data were within 1σ-2σ of each other. While further analysis on a broader range of galaxies is needed, these results are instructive of the best and worst methods to use when measuring SFR in low-metallicity dwarf galaxies like NGC 5253.