Comprehensive comparison of models for spectral energy distributions
  from 0.1 micron to 1 mm of nearby star-forming galaxies
  We have fit the far-ultraviolet (FUV) to sub-millimeter (850 micron) spectral
energy distributions (SEDs) of the 61 galaxies from the "Key Insights on Nearby
Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel" (KINGFISH). The fitting has been
performed using three models: the Code for Investigating GALaxy Evolution
(CIGALE), the GRAphite-SILicate approach (GRASIL), and the Multi-wavelength
Analysis of Galaxy PHYSical properties (MAGPHYS). We have analyzed the results
of the three codes in terms of the SED shapes, and by comparing the derived
quantities with simple "recipes" for stellar mass (Mstar), star-formation rate
(SFR), dust mass (Mdust), and monochromatic luminosities. Although the
algorithms rely on different assumptions for star-formation history, dust
attenuation and dust reprocessing, they all well approximate the observed SEDs
and are in generally good agreement for the associated quantities. However, the
three codes show very different behavior in the mid-infrared regime, in
particular between 25 and 70 micron where there are no observational
constraints for the KINGFISH sample. We find that different algorithms give
discordant SFR estimates for galaxies with low specific SFR, and that the
standard "recipes" for calculating FUV absorption overestimate the extinction
compared to the SED-fitting results. Results also suggest that assuming a
"standard" constant stellar mass-to-light ratio overestimates Mstar relative to
the SED fitting, and we provide new SED-based formulations for estimating Mstar
from WISE W1 (3.4 micron) luminosities and colors. From a Principal Component
Analysis of Mstar, SFR, Mdust, and O/H, we reproduce previous scaling relations
among Mstar, SFR, and O/H, and find that Mdust can be predicted to within
roughly 0.3 dex using only Mstar and SFR.
