Low-Redshift Compact Star-Forming Galaxies As Analogues Of High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies

We compare the relations among various integrated characteristics of similar to 25 000 low-redshift (z less than or similar to 1.0) compact star-forming galaxies (CSFGs) from Data Release 16 (DR16) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and of high-redshift (z greater than or similar to 1.5) star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with respect to oxygen abundances, stellar masses M-star, far-UV absolute magnitudes M-FUV, star-formation rates SFR and specific star-formation rates sSFR, Lyman-continuum photon production efficiencies (xi (ion)), UV continuum slopes beta, [OIII] lambda 5007/[OII] lambda 3727 and [NeIII] lambda 3868/[OII] lambda 3727 ratios, and emission-line equivalent widths EW([OII] lambda 3727), EW([OIII] lambda 5007), and EW(H alpha). We find that the relations for low-z CSFGs with high equivalent widths of the H beta emission line, EW(H beta) >= 100 angstrom, and high-z SFGs are very similar, implying close physical properties in these two categories of galaxies. Thus, CSFGs are likely excellent proxies for the SFGs in the high-z Universe. They also extend to galaxies with lower stellar masses, down to similar to 10(6) M-circle dot, and to absolute FUV magnitudes as faint as -14 mag. Thanks to their proximity, CSFGs can be studied in much greater detail than distant SFGs. Therefore, the relations between the integrated characteristics of the large sample of CSFGs studied here can prove very useful for our understanding of high-z dwarf galaxies in future observations with large ground-based and space telescopes.