  We report basic far-infrared (FIR) properties of eight blue compact dwarf
galaxies (BCDs) observed by AKARI. We measure the fluxes at the four FIS bands
(wavelengths of 65 um, 90 um, 140 um, and 160 um). Based on these fluxes, we
estimate basic quantities about dust: dust temperature, dust mass, and total
FIR luminosity. We find that the typical dust temperature of the BCD sample is
systematically higher than that of normal spiral galaxies, although there is a
large variety. The interstellar radiation field estimated from the dust
temperature ranges up to 100 times of the Galactic value. This confirms the
concentrated star-forming activity in BCDs. The star formation rate can be
evaluated from the FIR luminosity as 0.01--0.5 $M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Combining
this quantity with gas mass taken from the literature, we estimate the gas
consumption timescales (gas mass divided by the star formation rate), which
prove to span a wide range from 1 Gyr to 100 Gyr. A natural interpretation of
this large variety can be provided by intermittent star formation activity. We
finally show the relation between dust-to-gas ratio and metallicity (we utilize
our estimate of dust mass, and take other necessary quantities from the
literature). There is a positive correlation between dust-to-gas ratio and
metallicity as expected from chemical evolution models.

Astrophysics