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The Extreme starbursts in the local universe workshop was held at the Insituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia in Granada, Spain on 21-25 June 2010. Bearing in mind the advent of a new generation of facilities such as JWST, Herschel, ALMA, eVLA and eMerlin, the aim of the workshop was to bring together observers and theorists to review the latest results. The purpose of the workshop was to address the following issues: what are the main modes of triggering extreme starbursts in the local Universe? How efficiently are stars formed in extreme starbursts? What are the star formation histories of local starburst galaxies? How well do the theoretical simulations model the observations? What can we learn about starbursts in the distant Universe through studies of their local counterparts? How important is the role of extreme starbursts in the hierarchical assembly of galaxies? How are extreme starbursts related to the triggering of AGN in the nuclei of galaxies? Overall, 41 talks and 4 posters with their corresponding 10 minutes short talks were presented during the workshop. In addition, the workshop was designed with emphasis on discussions, and therefore, there were 6 discussion sessions of up to one hour during the workshop. Here is presented a summary of the purposes of the workshop as well as a compilation of the abstracts corresponding to each of the presentations. The summary and conclusions of the workshop along with a description of the future prospects by Sylvain Veilleux can be found in the last section of this document. A photo of the assistants is included.
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The observational study of star-formation laws is paramount to disentangling the physical processes at work on local and global scales in galaxies. To this aim we have expanded the sample of extreme starbursts, represented by local LIRGs and ULIRGs, with high-quality data obtained in the 1-0 line of HCN. The analysis of the new data shows that the star-formation efficiency of the dense molecular gas, derived from the FIR/HCN luminosity ratio, is a factor 3-4 higher in extreme starbursts compared to normal galaxies. We find a duality in the Kennicutt-Schmidt laws that is enhanced if we account for the different conversion factor for HCN (alpha_HCN) in extreme starbursts and correct for the unobscured star-formation rate in normal galaxies. We find that it is possible to fit the observed differences in the FIR/HCN ratios between normal galaxies and LIRGs/ULIRGs with a common constant star-formation rate per free-fall time (SFR_ff) if we assume that HCN densities are ~1-2 orders of magnitude higher in LIRGs/ULIRGs, and provided that SFR_ ff~0.005-0.01 and/or if alpha_HCN is a factor of a few lower than our favored values.
The source responsible for reionizing the universe at z > 6 remains uncertain. While an energetically adequate population of star-forming galaxies may be in place, it is unknown whether a large enough fraction of their ionizing radiation can escape into the intergalactic medium. Attempts to measure this escape-fraction in intensely star-forming galaxies at lower redshifts have largely yielded upper limits. In this paper we present new HST COS and archival FUSE far-UV spectroscopy of a sample of eleven Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs), a rare population of local galaxies that strongly resemble the high-z Lyman Break galaxies. We combine these data with SDSS optical spectra and Spitzer photometry. We also analyze archival FUSE observations of fifteen typical UV-bright local starbursts. We find evidence of small covering factors for optically-thick neutral gas in 3 cases. This is based on two independent pieces of evidence: a significant residual intensity in the cores of the strongest interstellar absorption-lines tracing neutral gas and a small ratio of extinction-corrected H-alpha to UV plus far-IR luminosities. These objects represent three of the four LBAs that contain a young, very compact (~100pc), and highly massive (~10^9 Mo) dominant central object (DCO). These three objects also differ from the other galaxies in showing a significant amount of blueshifted Ly-alpha emission, which may be related to the low covering factor of neutral gas. All four LBAs with DCOs in our sample show extremely high velocity outflows of interstellar gas, with line centroids blueshifted by about 700km/s and maximum outflow velocities reaching at least 1500km/s. We show that these properties are consistent with an outflow driven by a powerful starburst that is exceptionally compact. We speculate that such extreme feedback may be required to enable the escape of ionizing radiation from star forming galaxies.
We report the identification of an extreme proto-cluster of galaxies in the early Universe whose core (nicknamed Distant Red Core, DRC) is formed by at least ten dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs), confirmed to lie at $z_{rm spec} = 4.002$ via detection of [CI](1-0), $^{12}$CO(6-5), $^{12}$CO(4-3), $^{12}$CO(2-1) and ${rm H_2O} (2_{11} - 2_{02})$ emission lines, detected using ALMA and ATCA. The spectroscopically-confirmed components of the proto-cluster are distributed over a ${rm 260, kpc times 310, kpc}$ region and have a collective obscured star-formation rate (SFR) of $sim 6500 , M_odot , {rm yr}^{-1}$, considerably higher than has been seen before in any proto-cluster of galaxies or over-densities of DSFGs at $z gtrsim 4$. Most of the star formation is taking place in luminous DSFGs since no Ly$alpha$ emitters are detected in the proto-cluster core, apart from a Ly$alpha$ blob located next to one of the DRC dusty components and extending over $60,{rm kpc}$. The total obscured SFR of the proto-cluster could rise to ${rm SFR} sim 14,400 , M_odot , {rm yr}^{-1}$ if all the members of an over-density of bright DSFGs discovered around DRC in a wide-field LABOCA 870-$mu$m image are part of the same structure. The total halo mass of DRC could be as high as $sim 4.4 times 10^{13},M_odot$ and could be the progenitor of a Coma-like cluster at $z = 0$. The relatively short gas-depletion times of the DRC components suggest either the presence of a mechanism able to trigger extreme star formation simultaneously in galaxies spread over a few hundred kpc or the presence of gas flows from the cosmic web able to sustain star formation over several hundred million years.
We review how dark matter is distributed in our local neighbourhood from an observational and theoretical perspective. We will start by describing first the dark matter halo of our own galaxy and in the Local Group. Then we proceed to describe the dark matter distribution in the more extended area known as the Local Universe. Depending on the nature of dark matter, numerical simulations predict different abundances of substructures in Local Group galaxies, in the number of void regions and in the abundance of low rotational velocity galaxies in the Local Universe. By comparing these predictions with the most recent observations, strong constrains on the physical properties of the dark matter particles can be derived. We devote particular attention to the results from the Constrained Local UniversE Simulations (CLUES) project, a special set of simulations whose initial conditions are constrained by observational data from the Local Universe. The resulting simulations are designed to reproduce the observed structures in the nearby universe. The CLUES provides a numerical laboratory for simulating the Local Group of galaxies and exploring the physics of galaxy formation in an environment designed to follow the observed Local Universe. It has come of age as the numerical analogue of Near-Field Cosmology.
The fate of ionizing radiation is vital for understanding cosmic ionization, energy budgets in the interstellar and intergalactic medium, and star formation rate indicators. The low observed escape fractions of ionizing radiation have not been adequately explained, and there is evidence that some starbursts have high escape fractions. We examine the spectral energy distributions of a sample of local star-forming galaxies, containing thirteen local starburst galaxies and ten of their ordinary star-forming counterparts, to determine if there exist significant differences in the fate of ionizing radiation in these galaxies. We find that the galaxy-to-galaxy variations in the SEDs is much larger than any systematic differences between starbursts and non-starbursts. For example, we find no significant differences in the total absorption of ionizing radiation by dust, traced by the 24um, 70um, and 160um MIPS bands of the Spitzer Space Telescope, although the dust in starburst galaxies appears to be hotter than that of non-starburst galaxies. We also observe no excess ultraviolet flux in the GALEX bands that could indicate a high escape fraction of ionizing photons in starburst galaxies. The small H-alpha fractions of the diffuse, warm ionized medium in starburst galaxies are apparently due to temporarily boosted H-alpha luminosity within the star-forming regions themselves, with an independent, constant WIM luminosity. This independence of the WIM and starburst luminosities contrasts with WIM behavior in non-starburst galaxies and underscores our poor understanding of radiation transfer in both ordinary and starburst galaxies.
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