Dust Attenuation Curves in the Local Universe: Demographics and New Laws
  for Star-forming Galaxies and High-redshift Analogs
  We study dust attenuation curves of 230,000 individual galaxies in the local
universe, ranging from quiescent to intensely star-forming systems, using
GALEX, SDSS, and WISE photometry calibrated on Herschel-ATLAS. We use a new
method of constraining SED fits with infrared luminosity (SED+LIR fitting), and
parameterized attenuation curves determined with the CIGALE SED fitting code.
Attenuation curve slopes and UV bump strengths are reasonably well constrained
independently from one another. We find that $A_{\lambda}/A_V$ attenuation
curves exhibit a very wide range of slopes that are on average as steep as the
SMC curve slope. The slope is a strong function of optical opacity. Opaque
galaxies have shallower curves - in agreement with recent radiate transfer
models. The dependence of slopes on the opacity produces an apparent dependence
on stellar mass: more massive galaxies having shallower slopes. Attenuation
curves exhibit a wide range of UV bump amplitudes, from none to MW-like; with
an average strength 1/3 of the MW bump. Notably, local analogs of high-redshift
galaxies have an average curve that is somewhat steeper than the SMC curve,
with a modest UV bump that can be to first order ignored, as its effect on the
near-UV magnitude is 0.1 mag. Neither the slopes nor the strengths of the UV
bump depend on gas-phase metallicity. Functional forms for attenuation laws are
presented for normal star-forming galaxies, high-z analogs and quiescent
galaxies. We release the catalog of associated SFRs and stellar masses
(GSWLC-2).
