A LOFAR-IRAS cross-match study: the far-infrared radio correlation and the 150 MHz luminosity as a star-formation rate tracer

Aims: We aim to study the far-infrared radio correlation (FIRC) at 150 MHz in the local Universe (at a median redshift ⟨z⟩∼0.05) and improve the use of the rest-frame 150 MHz luminosity, L150, as a star-formation rate (SFR) tracer, which is unaffected by dust extinction. Methods: We cross-match the 60 μm selected Revised IRAS Faint Source Survey Redshift (RIFSCz) catalogue and the 150 MHz selected LOFAR value-added source catalogue in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) Spring Field. We estimate L150 for the cross-matched sources and compare it with the total infrared (IR) luminosity, LIR, and various SFR tracers. Results: We find a tight linear correlation between log L150 and log LIR for star-forming galaxies, with a slope of 1.37. The median qIR value (defined as the logarithm of the LIR to L150 ratio) and its rms scatter of our main sample are 2.14 and 0.34, respectively. We also find that log L150 correlates tightly with the logarithm of SFR derived from three different tracers, i.e., SFRHα based on the Hα line luminosity, SFR60 based on the rest-frame 60 μm luminosity and SFRIR based on LIR, with a scatter of 0.3 dex. Our best-fit relations between L150 and these SFR tracers are, log L150 (L☉) = 1.35(±0.06) × log SFRHα (M☉ yr-1) + 3.20(±0.06), log L150 (L☉) = 1.31(±0.05) × log SFR60 (M☉ yr-1) + 3.14(±0.06), and log L150 (L☉) = 1.37 (±0.05) × log SFRIR (M☉ yr-1) + 3.09(±0.05), which show excellent agreement with each other