Title DUST ATTENUATION AND Hα STAR FORMATION RATES OFz ∼ 0 . 5 GALAXIES Permalink

Using deep narrow-band and broad-band imaging, we identify 401 z ≈ 0.40 and 249 z ≈ 0.49 Hα line-emitting galaxies in the Subaru Deep Field. Compared to other Hα surveys at similar redshifts, our samples are unique since they probe lower Hα luminosities, are augmented with multi-wavelength (rest-frame 1000Å–1.5μm) coverage, and a large fraction (20%) of our samples has already been spectroscopically confirmed. Our spectra allow us to measure the Balmer decrement for nearly 60 galaxies with Hβ detected above 5σ. The Balmer decrements indicate an average extinction of A(Hα) = 0.7 −0.7 mag. We find that the Balmer decrement systematically increases with higher Hα luminosities and with larger stellar masses, in agreement with previous studies with sparser samples. We find that the SFRs estimated from modeling the spectral energy distribution (SED) is reliable—we derived an “intrinsic” Hα luminosity which is then reddened assuming the color excess from SED modeling. The SED-predicted Hα luminosity agrees with Hα narrow-band measurements over 3 dex (rms of 0.25 dex). We then use the SED SFRs to test different statistically-based dust corrections for Hα and find that adopting one magnitude of extinction is inappropriate: galaxies with lower luminosities are less reddened. We find that the luminosity-dependent dust correction of Hopkins et al. yields consistent results over 3 dex (rms of 0.3 dex). Our comparisons are only possible by assuming that stellar reddening is roughly half of nebular reddening. The strong correspondence argue that with SED modeling, we can derive reliable intrinsic SFRs even in the absence of Hα measurements at z ∼ 0.5. Subject headings: galaxies: photometry — galaxies: distances and redshifts — galaxies: evolution — galaxies: high-redshift — dust, extinction