Star Formation Rates of Local Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies. I. 1.4 GH[CLC]z[/CLC] and 60 Micron Luminosities

Abstract

We determine and examine the star-formation rates of 50 well known, local Blue Compact Dwarf (BCD) galaxies based on their 1.4 GHz and 60 $\mu$m luminosities. We find that in cases for which both radio and far-infrared luminosities are available, the resulting star-formation rates agree extremely well with one another. We determine that the star-formation rates of the BCD galaxies in our sample span nearly five orders of magnitude, from approximately a few times 10$^{-3}$ to several times 10$^{1}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$, with a median SFR of about 0.3$ $M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. We discuss trends of metallicity (primarily oxygen abundance) with star-formation rate, and explore the connections between SFR and galaxy mass estimates.