Low-frequency turnover star-forming galaxies I: Radio continuum observations and global properties

Abstract

There is growing evidence that the broadband radio spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) contain a wealth of complex physics. In this paper we aim to determine the physical emission and loss processes causing radio SED curvature and steepening to see what observed global astrophysical properties, if any, are correlated with radio SED complexity. To do this, we have acquired radio continuum data between 70 MHz and 17 GHz for a sample of 19 southern local (z < 0.04) SFGs. Of this sample 11 are selected to contain low-frequency (<300 MHz) turnovers (LFTOs) in their SEDs and eight are control galaxies with similar global properties. We model the radio SEDs for our sample using a Bayesian framework whereby radio emission (synchrotron and free-free) and absorption or loss processes are included modularly. We find that without the inclusion of higher frequency data (>17 GHz) single synchrotron power-law based models are always preferred for our sample; however, additional processes including free-free absorption (FFA) and synchrotron losses are often required to accurately model radio SED complexity in SFGs. The fitted synchrotron spectral indices range from −0.45 to −1.07 and are strongly anticorrelated with stellar mass suggesting that synchrotron losses are the dominant mechanism acting to steepen the spectral index in larger/more massive nearby SFGs. We find that LFTOs in the radio SED are independent from the inclination of SFGs; however, higher inclination galaxies tend to have steeper fitted spectral indices indicating losses to diffusion of cosmic ray electrons into the galactic halo. Four of five of the merging systems in our SFG sample have elevated specific star formation rates and flatter fitted spectral indices with unconstrained LFTOs. Lastly, we find no significant separation in global properties between SFGs with or without modelled LFTOs. Overall these results suggest that LFTOs are likely caused by a combination of FFA and ionisation losses in individual recent starburst regions with specific orientations and interstellar medium properties that, when averaged over the entire galaxy, do not correlate with global astrophysical properties.