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Register a new userAGN and star formation activity in local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies
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Almudena Alonso-Herrero
Publication date
2013
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Almudena Alonso-Herrero
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The enormous amounts of infrared (IR) radiation emitted by luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs, L_IR=10^11-10^12Lsun) and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs, L_IR>10^12Lsun) are produced by dust heated by intense star formation (SF) activity and/or an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The elevated star formation rates and high AGN incidence in (U)LIRGs make them ideal candidates to study the interplay between SF and AGN activity in the local universe. In this paper I review recent results on the physical extent of the SF activity, the AGN detection rate (including buried AGN), the AGN bolometric contribution to the luminosity of the systems, as well as the evolution of local LIRGs and ULIRGs. The main emphasis of this review is on recent results from IR observations.
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Nuclear starbursts and AGN activity are the main heating processes in luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) and their relationship is fundamental to understand galaxy evolution. In this paper, we study the star-formation and AGN activity of a sample of 11 local LIRGs imaged with subarcsecond angular resolution at radio (8.4GHz) and near-infrared ($2.2mu$m) wavelengths. This allows us to characterize the central kpc of these galaxies with a spatial resolution of $simeq100$pc. In general, we find a good spatial correlation between the radio and the near-IR emission, although radio emission tends to be more concentrated in the nuclear regions. Additionally, we use an MCMC code to model their multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) using template libraries of starburst, AGN and spheroidal/cirrus models, determining the luminosity contribution of each component, and finding that all sources in our sample are starburst-dominated, except for NGC6926 with an AGN contribution of $simeq64$%. Our sources show high star formation rates ($40$ to $167M_odotmathrm{yr}^{-1}$), supernova rates (0.4 to $2.0mathrm{SN}mathrm{yr}^{-1}$), and similar starburst ages (13 to $29mathrm{Myr}$), except for the young starburst (9Myr) in NGC6926. A comparison of our derived star-forming parameters with estimates obtained from different IR and radio tracers shows an overall consistency among the different star formation tracers. AGN tracers based on mid-IR, high-ionization line ratios also show an overall agreement with our SED model fit estimates for the AGN. Finally, we use our wide-band VLA observations to determine pixel-by-pixel radio spectral indices for all galaxies in our sample, finding a typical median value ($alphasimeq-0.8$) for synchrotron-powered LIRGs.
Local luminous infrared (IR) galaxies (LIRGs) have both high star formation rates (SFR) and a high AGN (Seyfert and AGN/starburst composite) incidence. Therefore, they are ideal candidates to explore the co-evolution of black hole (BH) growth and star formation (SF) activity, not necessarily associated with major mergers. Here, we use Spitzer/IRS spectroscopy of a complete volume-limited sample of local LIRGs (distances of <78Mpc). We estimate typical BH masses of 3x10^7 M_sun using [NeIII]15.56micron and optical [OIII]5007A gas velocity dispersions and literature stellar velocity dispersions. We find that in a large fraction of local LIRGs the current SFR is taking place not only in the inner nuclear ~1.5kpc region, as estimated from the nuclear 11.3micron PAH luminosities, but also in the host galaxy. We next use the ratios between the SFRs and BH accretion rates (BHAR) to study whether the SF activity and BH growth are contemporaneous in local LIRGs. On average, local LIRGs have SFR to BHAR ratios higher than those of optically selected Seyferts of similar AGN luminosities. However, the majority of the IR-bright galaxies in the RSA Seyfert sample behave like local LIRGs. Moreover, the AGN incidence tends to be higher in local LIRGs with the lowest SFRs. All this suggests that in local LIRGs there is a distinct IR-bright star forming phase taking place prior to the bulk of the current BH growth (i.e., AGN phase). The latter is reflected first as a composite and then as a Seyfert, and later as a non-LIRG optically identified Seyfert nucleus with moderate SF in its host galaxy.
Luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs) are the most extreme star forming galaxies in the universe. The local (U)LIRGs provide a unique opportunity to study their multi-wavelength properties in detail for comparison to their more numerous counterparts at high redshifts. We present common large aperture photometry at radio through X-ray wavelengths, and spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for a sample of 53 nearby LIRGs and 11 ULIRGs spanning log (LIR/Lsun) = 11.14-12.57 from the flux-limited Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). The SEDs for all objects are similar in that they show a broad, thermal stellar peak and a dominant FIR thermal dust peak, where nuLnu(60um) / nuLnu(V) increases from ~2-30 with increasing LIR. When normalized at IRAS-60um, the largest range in the luminosity ratio, R(lambda)=log[nuLnu(lambda)/nuLnu(60um)] observed over the full sample is seen in the Hard X-rays (HX=2-10 keV). A small range is found in the Radio (1.4GHz), where the mean ratio is largest. Total infrared luminosities, LIR(8-1000um), dust temperatures, and dust masses were computed from fitting thermal dust emission modified blackbodies to the mid-infrared (MIR) through submillimeter SEDs. The new results reflect an overall ~0.02 dex lower luminosity than the original IRAS values. Total stellar masses were computed by fitting stellar population synthesis models to the observed near-infrared (NIR) through ultraviolet (UV) SEDs. Mean stellar masses are found to be log(M/Msun) = 10.79+/-0.40. Star formation rates have been determined from the infrared (SFR_IR~45Msun/yr) and from the monochromatic UV luminosities (SFR_UV~1.3Msun/yr), respectively. Multiwavelength AGN indicators have be used to select putative AGN: about 60% of the ULIRGs would have been classified as an AGN by at least one of the selection criteria.
We investigate the use of mid-infrared PAH bands, continuum and emission lines as probes of star-formation and AGN activity in a sample of 100 `normal and local (z~0.1) galaxies. The MIR spectra were obtained with the Spitzer IRS as part of the Spitzer-SDSS-GALEX Spectroscopic Survey (SSGSS) which includes multi-wavelength photometry from the UV to the FIR and optical spectroscopy. The spectra were decomposed using PAHFIT (Smith et al. 2007), which we find to yield PAH equivalent widths (EW) up to ~30 times larger than the commonly used spline methods. Based on correlations between PAH, continuum and emission line properties and optically derived physical properties (gas phase metallicity, radiation field hardness), we revisit the diagnostic diagram relating PAH EWs and [NeII]/[OIV] and find it more efficient as distinguishing weak AGNs from star-forming galaxies than when spline decompositions are used. The luminosity of individual MIR component (PAH, continuum, Ne and molecular hydrogen lines) are found to be tightly correlated to the total IR luminosity and can be used to estimate dust attenuation in the UV and in Ha lines based on energy balance arguments.
We present new observations made with the IRAM 30m telescope of the J=1-0 and 3-2 lines of HCN and HCO^+ used to probe the dense molecular gas content in a sample of 17 local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs). These observations have allowed us to derive an updated version of the power law describing the correlation between the FIR luminosity (L_FIR) and the HCN(1-0) luminosity (L_HCN(1-0)) of local and high-redshift galaxies. We present the first clear observational evidence that the star formation efficiency of the dense gas (SFE_dense), measured as the L_FIR/L_HCN(1-0) ratio, is significantly higher in LIRGs and ULIRGs than in normal galaxies, a result that has also been found recently in high-redshift galaxies. This may imply a statistically significant turn upward in the Kennicutt-Schmidt law derived for the dense gas at L_FIR >= 10^11 L_sun. We have used a one-phase Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) radiative transfer code to fit the three independent line ratios derived from our observations. The results of this analysis indicate that the [HCN]/[HCO^+] abundance ratios could be up to one order of magnitude higher than normal in a significant number of LIRGs and ULIRGs of our sample. An overabundance of HCN at high L_FIR implies that the reported trend in the L_FIR/L_HCN ratio as a function of L_FIR would be underestimating a potentially more dramatic change of the SFE_dense. Results obtained with two-phase LVG models corroborate that the L_HCN(1-0)-to-M_dense conversion factor must be lowered at high L_FIR. We discuss the implications of these findings for the use of HCN as a tracer of the dense molecular gas in local and high-redshift luminous infrared galaxies.
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