No Arabic abstract
We present $HST$ narrow-band near-infrared imaging of Pa$alpha$ and Pa$beta$ emission of 48 local Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) from the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). These data allow us to measure the properties of 810 spatially resolved star-forming regions (59 nuclei and 751 extra-nuclear clumps), and directly compare their properties to those found in both local and high-redshift star-forming galaxies. We find that in LIRGs, the star-forming clumps have radii ranging from $sim90-900$ pc and star formation rates (SFRs) of $sim1times10^{-3}$ to 10 M$_odot$yr$^{-1}$, with median values for extra-nuclear clumps of 170 pc and 0.03 M$_odot$yr$^{-1}$. The detected star-forming clumps are young, with a median stellar age of $8.7$ Myrs, and a median stellar mass of $5times10^{5}$ M$_odot$. The SFRs span the range of those found in normal local star-forming galaxies to those found in high-redshift star-forming galaxies at $rm{z}=1-3$. The luminosity function of the LIRG clumps has a flatter slope than found in lower-luminosity, star-forming galaxies, indicating a relative excess of luminous star-forming clumps. In order to predict the possible range of star-forming histories and gas fractions, we compare the star-forming clumps to those measured in the MassiveFIRE high-resolution cosmological simulation. The star-forming clumps in MassiveFIRE cover the same range of SFRs and sizes found in the local LIRGs and have total gas fractions that extend from 10 to 90%. If local LIRGs are similar to these simulated galaxies, we expect future observations with ALMA will find a large range of gas fractions, and corresponding star formation efficiencies, among the star-forming clumps in LIRGs.
We present the analysis of the integrated spectral energy distribution (SED) from the ultraviolet (UV) to the far-infrared and H$alpha$ of a sample of 29 local systems and individual galaxies with infrared (IR) luminosities between 10^11 Lsun and 10^11.8 Lsun. We have combined new narrow-band H$alpha$+[NII] and broad-band g, r optical imaging taken with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT), with archival GALEX, 2MASS, Spitzer, and Herschel data. The SEDs (photometry and integrated H$alpha$ flux) have been fitted with a modified version of the MAGPHYS code using stellar population synthesis models for the UV-near-IR range and thermal emission models for the IR emission taking into account the energy balance between the absorbed and re-emitted radiation. From the SED fits we derive the star-formation histories (SFH) of these galaxies. For nearly half of them the star-formation rate appears to be approximately constant during the last few Gyrs. In the other half, the current star-formation rate seems to be enhanced by a factor of 3-20 with respect to that occured ~1 Gyr ago. Objects with constant SFH tend to be more massive than starbursts and they are compatible with the expected properties of a main-sequence (M-S) galaxy. Likewise, the derived SFHs show that all our objects were M-S galaxies ~1 Gyr ago with stellar masses between 10^10.1 and 10^11.5 Msun. We also derived from our fits the average extinction (A_v=0.6-3 mag) and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) luminosity to L(IR) ratio (0.03-0.16). We combined the A_v with the total IR and H$alpha$ luminosities into a diagram which can be used to identify objects with rapidly changing (increasing or decreasing) SFR during the last 100 Myr.
We present the first results of a high-resolution Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) imaging survey of luminous and ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). From the full sample of 68 galaxies, we have selected 25 LIRGs that show resolved extended emission at sufficient sensitivity to image individual regions of star-formation activity beyond the nucleus.~With wideband radio continuum observations, which sample the frequency range from $3-33$ GHz, we have made extinction-free measurements of the luminosities and spectral indicies for a total of 48 individual star-forming regions identified as having de-projected galactocentric radii ($r_{G}$) that lie outside the 13.2$mu$m core of the galaxy.~The median $3-33$ GHz spectral index and 33 GHz thermal fraction measured for these extranuclear regions is $-0.51 pm 0.13$ and $65 pm 11%$ respectively.~These values are consistent with measurements made on matched spatial scales in normal star-forming galaxies, and suggests that these regions are more heavily-dominated by thermal free-free emission relative to the centers of local ULIRGs.~Further, we find that the median star-formation rate derived for these regions is $sim 1 M_{odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, and when we place them on the sub-galactic star-forming main sequence of galaxies (SFMS), we find they are offset from their host galaxies globally-averaged specific star-formation rates (sSFRs).~We conclude that while nuclear starburst activity drives LIRGs above the SFMS, extranuclear star-formation still proceeds in a more extreme fashion relative to what is seen in local spiral galaxies.
With the spatial resolution of the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA), dusty galaxies in the distant Universe typically appear as single, compact blobs of dust emission, with a median half-light radius, $approx$ 1 kpc. Occasionally, strong gravitational lensing by foreground galaxies or galaxy clusters has probed spatial scales 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller, often revealing late-stage mergers, sometimes with tantalising hints of sub-structure. One lensed galaxy in particular, the Cosmic Eyelash at $z=$ 2.3, has been cited extensively as an example of where the interstellar medium exhibits obvious, pronounced clumps, on a spatial scale of $approx$ 100 pc. Seven orders of magnitude more luminous than giant molecular clouds in the local Universe, these features are presented as circumstantial evidence that the blue clumps observed in many $zsim$ 2-3 galaxies are important sites of ongoing star formation, with significant masses of gas and stars. Here, we present data from ALMA which reveal that the dust continuum of the Cosmic Eyelash is in fact smooth and can be reproduced using two Sersic profiles with effective radii, 1.2 and 4.4 kpc, with no evidence of significant star-forming clumps down to a spatial scale of $approx$ 80 pc and a star-formation rate of $<$ 3 M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$.
We present Herschel/PACS observations of extended [CII]157.7{mu}m line emission detected on ~ 1 - 10 kpc scales in 60 local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) from the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). We find that most of the extra-nuclear emission show [CII]/FIR ratios >~ 4 x 10^-3, larger than the mean ratio seen in the nuclei, and similar to those found in the extended disks of normal star-forming galaxies and the diffuse inter-stellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy. The [CII] deficits found in the most luminous local LIRGs are therefore restricted to their nuclei. There is a trend for LIRGs with warmer nuclei to show larger differences between their nuclear and extra-nuclear [CII]/FIR ratios. We find an anti-correlation between [CII]/FIR and the luminosity surface density, {Sigma}_IR, for the extended emission in the spatially-resolved galaxies. However, there is an offset between this trend and that found for the LIRG nuclei. We use this offset to derive a beam filling-factor for the star-forming regions within the LIRG disks of ~ 6 % relative to their nuclei. We confront the observed trend to photo-dissociation region (PDR) models and find that the slope of the correlation is much shallower than the model predictions. Finally, we compare the correlation found between [CII]/FIR and {Sigma}_IR with measurements of high-redshift starbursting IR-luminous galaxies.
The Clusters, Clumps, Dust, and Gas in Extreme Star-Forming Galaxies (CCDG) survey with the Hubble Space Telescope includes multi-wavelength imaging of 13 galaxies less than 100 Mpc away spanning a range of morphologies and sizes, from Blue Compact Dwarfs (BCDs) to luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), all with star formation rates in excess of hundreds of solar masses per year. Images of 7 merging galaxies in the CCDG survey were artificially redshifted to compare with galaxies at z=0.5, 1, and 2. Most redshifted tails have surface brightnesses that would be visible at z=0.5 or 1 but not at z=2 due to cosmological dimming. Giant star clumps are apparent in these galaxies; the 51 measured have similar sizes, masses and colors as clumps in observed high-z systems in UDF, GEMS, GOODS, and CANDELS surveys. These results suggest that some clumpy high-z galaxies without observable tidal features could be the result of mergers. The local clumps also have the same star formation rate per unit area and stellar surface density as clumps observed at intermediate and high redshift, so they provide insight into the substructure of distant clumps. A total of 1596 star clusters brighter than MV = -9 were identified within the boundaries of the local clumps. The cluster magnitude distribution function is a power law with approximately the same slope (approximately -1 for a number-log luminosity plot) for all the galaxies both inside and outside the clumps and independent of clump surface brightness.