ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

The Nuclear Structure in Nearby Luminous Infrared Galaxies: HST NICMOS Imaging of the GOALS Sample

128   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Sebastian Haan
 تاريخ النشر 2010
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

We present results of Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS H-band imaging of 73 of most luminous (i.e., log[L_IR/L_0]>11.4) Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). This dataset combines multi-wavelength imaging and spectroscopic data from space (Spitzer, HST, GALEX, and Chandra) and ground-based telescopes. In this paper we use the high-resolution near-infrared data to recover nuclear structure that is obscured by dust at optical wavelengths and measure the evolution in this structure along the merger sequence. A large fraction of all galaxies in our sample possess double nuclei (~63%) or show evidence for triple nuclei (~6%). Half of these double nuclei are not visible in the HST B-band images due to dust obscuration. The majority of interacting LIRGs have remaining merger timescales of 0.3 to 1.3 Gyrs, based on the projected nuclear separations and the mass ratio of nuclei. We find that the bulge luminosity surface density increases significantly along the merger sequence (primarily due to a decrease of the bulge radius), while the bulge luminosity shows a small increase towards late merger stages. No significant increase of the bulge Sersic index is found. LIRGs that show no interaction features have on average a significantly larger bulge luminosity, suggesting that non merging LIRGs have larger bulge masses than merging LIRGs. This may be related to the flux limited nature of the sample and the fact that mergers can significantly boost the IR luminosity of otherwise low luminosity galaxies. We find that the projected nuclear separation is significantly smaller for ULIRGs (median value of 1.2 kpc) than for LIRGs (mean value of 6.7 kpc), suggesting that the LIRG phase appears earlier in mergers than the ULIRG phase.



قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

We analyze Chandra X-ray observatory data for a sample of 63 luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), sampling the lower-infrared luminosity range of the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG survey (GOALS), which includes the most luminous infrared selected g alaxies in the local universe. X-rays are detected for 84 individual galaxies within the 63 systems, for which arcsecond resolution X-ray images, fluxes, infrared and X-ray luminosities, spectra and radial profiles are presented. Using X-ray and MIR selection criteria, we find AGN in (31$pm$5)% of the galaxy sample, compared to the (38$pm$6)% previously found for GOALS galaxies with higher infrared luminosities (C-GOALS I). Using mid-infrared data, we find that (59$pm$9)% of the X-ray selected AGN in the full C-GOALS sample do not contribute significantly to the bolometric luminosity of the host galaxy. Dual AGN are detected in two systems, implying a dual AGN fraction in systems that contain at least one AGN of (29$pm$14)%, compared to the (11$pm$10)% found for the C-GOALS I sample. Through analysis of radial profiles, we derive that most sources, and almost all AGN, in the sample are compact, with half of the soft X-ray emission generated within the inner $sim 1$ kpc. For most galaxies, the soft X-ray sizes of the sources are comparable to those of the MIR emission. We also find that the hard X-ray faintness previously reported for the bright C-GOALS I sources is also observed in the brightest LIRGs within the sample, with $L_{rm FIR}>8times10^{10}$ L$_{odot}$.
A {it Hubble Space Telescope} ({it HST}) / Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) study of the structural properties of 85 luminous and ultraluminous ($L_{rm IR} > 10^{11.4}$ L$_odot$) infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-sk y LIRG Survey (GOALS) sample is presented. Two-dimensional GALFIT analysis has been performed on F814W {it I}-band images to decompose each galaxy, as appropriate, into bulge, disk, central PSF and stellar bar components. The fraction of bulge-less disk systems is observed to be higher in LIRGs (35%) than in ULIRGs (20%), with the disk+bulge systems making up the dominant fraction of both LIRGs (55%) and ULIRGs (45%). Further, bulge+disk systems are the dominant late-stage merger galaxy type and are the dominant type for LIRGs and ULIRGs at almost every stage of galaxy-galaxy nuclear separation. The mean {it I}-band host absolute magnitude of the GOALS galaxies is $-22.64pm$0.62 mag (1.8$^{+1.4}_{-0.4}$ L$^*_I$), and the mean bulge absolute magnitude in GOALS galaxies is about 1.1 magnitude fainter than the mean host magnitude. Almost all ULIRGs have bulge magnitudes at the high end (-20.6 to - 23.5 mag) of the GOALS bulge magnitude range. Mass ratios in the GOALS binary systems are consistent with most of the galaxies being the result of major mergers, and an examination of the residual-to-host intensity ratios in GOALS binary systems suggests that smaller companions suffer more tidal distortion than the larger companions. We find approximately twice as many bars in GOALS disk+bulge systems (32.8%) than in pure-disk mergers (15.9%) but most of the disk+bulge systems that contain bars are disk-dominated with small bulges. The bar-to-host intensity ratio, bar half-light radius, and bar ellipticity in GOALS galaxies are similar to those found in nearby spiral galaxies.(abridged)
176 - H. Inami 2013
We present the data and our analysis of MIR fine-structure emission lines detected in Spitzer/IRS high-res spectra of 202 local LIRGs observed as part of the GOALS project. We detect emission lines of [SIV], [NeII], [NeV], [NeIII], [SIII]18.7, [OIV], [FeII], [SIII]33.5, and [SiII]. Over 75% of our galaxies are classified as starburst (SB) sources in the MIR. We compare ratios of the emission line fluxes to stellar photo- and shock-ionization models to constrain the gas properties in the SB nuclei. Comparing the [SIV]/[NeII] and [NeIII]/[NeII] ratios to the Starburst99-Mappings III models with an instantaneous burst history, the line ratios suggest that the SB in our LIRGs have ages of 1-4.5Myr, metallicities of 1-2Z_sun, and ionization parameters of 2-8e7cm/s. Based on the [SIII]/[SIII] ratios, the electron density in LIRG nuclei has a median electron density of ~300cm-3 for sources above the low density limit. We also find that strong shocks are likely present in 10 SB sources. A significant fraction of the GOALS sources have resolved neon lines and 5 show velocity differences of >200km/s in [NeIII] or [NeV] relative to [NeII]. Furthermore, 6 SB and 5 AGN LIRGs show a trend of increasing line width with ionization potential, suggesting the possibility of a compact energy source and stratified ISM in their nuclei. We confirm a strong correlation between the [NeII]+[NeIII] emission, as well as [SIII]33.5, with both the IR luminosity and the 24um warm dust emission measured from the spectra. Finally, we find no correlation between the hardness of the radiation field or the line width and the ratio of the total IR to 8um emission (IR8). This may be because the IR luminosity and the MIR fine-structure lines are sensitive to different timescales over the SB, or that IR8 is more sensitive to the geometry of the warm dust region than the radiation field producing the HII region emission.
We compare the morphologies of a sample of 20 LIRGs from the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) in the FUV, B, I and H bands, using the Gini (G) and M20 parameters to quantitatively estimate the distribution and concentration of flux as a function of wavelength. HST images provide an average spatial resolution of ~80 pc. While our LIRGs can be reliably classified as mergers across the entire range of wavelengths studied here, there is a clear shift toward more negative M20 (more bulge-dominated) and a less significant decrease in G values at longer wavelengths. We find no correlation between the derived FUV G-M20 parameters and the global measures of the IR to FUV flux ratio, IRX. Given the fine resolution in our HST data, this suggests either that the UV morphology and IRX are correlated on very small scales, or that the regions emitting the bulk of the IR emission emit almost no FUV light. We use our multi-wavelength data to simulate how merging LIRGs would appear from z~0.5-3 in deep optical and near-infrared images such as the HUDF, and use these simulations to measure the G-M20 at these redshifts. Our simulations indicate a noticeable decrease in G, which flattens at z >= 2 by as much as 40%, resulting in mis-classifying our LIRGs as disk-like, even in the rest-frame FUV. The higher redshift values of M20 for the GOALS sources do not appear to change more than about 10% from the values at z~0. The change in G-M20 is caused by the surface brightness dimming of extended tidal features and asymmetries, and also the decreased spatial resolution which reduced the number of individual clumps identified. This effect, seen as early as z~0.5, could easily lead to an underestimate of the number of merging galaxies at high-redshift in the rest-frame FUV.
We present the first results of a survey of the [CII]158um emission line in 241 luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) comprising the Great Observatories All-sky Survey (GOALS) sample, obtained with the PACS instrument on board Herschel. The [CII] lumino sities of the LIRGs in GOALS range from ~10^7 to 2x10^9 Lsun. We find that LIRGs show a tight correlation of [CII]/FIR with far-IR flux density ratios, with a strong negative trend spanning from ~10^-2 to 10^-4, as the average temperature of dust increases. We find correlations between the [CII]/FIR ratio and the strength of the 9.7um silicate absorption feature as well as with the luminosity surface density of the mid-IR emitting region (Sigma_MIR), suggesting that warmer, more compact starbursts have substantially smaller [CII]/FIR ratios. Pure star-forming (SF) LIRGs have a mean [CII]/FIR ~ 4x10^-3, while galaxies with low 6.2um PAH equivalent widths (EWs), indicative of the presence of active galactic nuclei (AGN), span the full range in [CII]/FIR. However, we show that even when only pure SF galaxies are considered, the [CII]/FIR ratio drops by an order of magnitude, from 10^-2 to 10^-3, with Sigma_MIR and Sigma_IR, implying that the [CII] luminosity is not a good indicator of the star formation rate (SFR) for most LIRGs, for it does not scale linearly with the warm dust emission. Moreover, even in LIRGs in which we detect an AGN in the mid-IR, the majority (2/3) of galaxies show [CII]/FIR >= 10^-3 typical of high 6.2um PAH EW sources, suggesting that most AGNs do not contribute significantly to the far-IR emission. We provide an empirical relation between the [CII]/FIR and the specific SFR (SSFR) for SF LIRGs. Finally, we present predictions for the starburst size based on the observed [CII] and far-IR luminosities which should be useful for comparing with results from future surveys of high-redshift galaxies with ALMA and CCAT.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا