The Stellar Population and Star Formation Properties of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies (1012.1145v1)

Abstract: We study the stellar populations, star formation histories and star formation properties for a sample of blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDs) selected by cross-correlating the Gil de Paz et al. (2003) sample with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 (SDSS DR6). The sample includes 31 BCDs, which span a large range in galactic parameters. Using a stellar population synthesis method, we derive the stellar populations and reconstruct the star formation histories for these BCDs. Our studies confirm that BCDs are not young systems experiencing their first star formation but old systems undergoing a starburst activity. The stellar mass-weighted ages can be as old as 10 Gyr while the luminosity-weighted ages might be up to $\sim 3$ orders of magnitude younger ($\sim 10$ Myr) for most galaxies. Based on multi-wavelength data, we also study the integrated star formation properties. The SFR for our sample galaxies spans nearly 3 orders of magnitude, from a few $10^{-3}$ to $\sim1\,M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, with the median value of $\sim 0.1\, M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. We find that about 90% BCDs in our sample have their birthrate parameter (the ratio of the current SFR to the averaged past SFR) $b>2-3$. We further discuss correlations of the current SFR with the integrated galactic stellar mass and explore the connection between SFR and metallicity.