ASTE observations of nearby galaxies:: A tight correlation between CO (J=3-2) emission and Hα

Star formation rates (SFRs) obtained via extinction-corrected Ha are compared to dense gas, as traced by (CO)-C-12 (J = 3-2) emission at the centers of nearby galaxies, observed with the ASTE telescope. It is found that, although many of the observed positions are dusty, and therefore heavily absorbed at H alpha, the SFR shows a striking correlation with dense gas in the form of the Schmidt law with an index of 1.0. The correlation is also compared between gas traced by (CO)-C-12 (J = 1-0) and the application of an Ha extinction correction. We find that dense gas produces a far-better correlation with SFR in view of the surface density values.