Spectral Energy Distribution fitting: Application to Lyα-emitting galaxies

Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) fitting is a well-developed astrophysical tool that has recently been applied to high-redshift Lyα-emitting galaxies. If rest-frame ultraviolet through near-infrared photometry is available, it allows the simultaneous determination of the star formation history and dust extinction of a galaxy. Lyα-emitter SED fitting results from the literature find star formation rates ∼3 M⊙ yr−1, stellar masses ∼109 M⊙ for the general population but ∼1010 M⊙ for the subset detected by IRAC, and very low dust extinction, AV ⩽ 0.3, although a couple of outlying analyses prefer significantly more dust and higher intrinsic star formation rates. A checklist of 14 critical choices that must be made when performing SED fitting is discussed.