A two-temperature model for the infrared and radio emission from late-type galaxies

The tight correlation between far-infrared (FIR) and non-thermal radio luminosities for late-type galaxies is now well established. Using data from the IRAS Point Source Catalog and the 6C radio survey at 151 MHz, we show that this correlation is well-fitted by a power law of the form Lsub(FIR) ∝ Psub(151 MHz)sup(γ) with γ 0.86 ± 0.03, which is consistent with other published FIR/radio correlations. We interpret this result in the light of proposals that far-infrared emission is due partly to recently formed massive stars and partly to an older population of stars. (author)