Strategies for obtaining robust SED fitting parameters for galaxies at z~1 and z~2 in the absence of IR data

Understand

Robust estimation of star formation rates (SFRs) at higher redshifts (z>1) using UV-optical-NIR photometry is contingent on the ability of spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting to simultaneously constrain the dust attenuation, stellar metallicity, and star formation history (SFH).

• IR-derived dust luminosities can help break the degeneracy between these parameters, but IR data is often not available.
• Here, we explore strategies for SED fitting at z>1 in the absence of IR data using a sample of log M*>10.2 star-forming galaxies from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) for which 24mu data are available.
• We adopt the total IR luminosity (L_TIR) obtained from 24mu as the 'ground truth' that allows us to assess how well it can be recovered (as L_dust) from UV-optical-NIR SED fitting.