PROBING THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM OF z {approx} 1 ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES THROUGH INTERFEROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS OF CO AND SPITZER MID-INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)
- European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago (Chile)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box 2, Green Bank, WV 24944 (United States)
- Spitzer Science Center, MS 220-6, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Universite Paris Diderot, DAPNIA/Service d'Astrophysique, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France)
We explore the relationship between gas, dust, and star formation in a sample of 12 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) at high-redshift compared to a similar sample of local galaxies. We present new CO observations and/or Spitzer mid-IR spectroscopy for six 70 {mu}m selected galaxies at z {approx} 1 in order to quantify the properties of the molecular gas reservoir, the contribution of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) to the mid-IR luminosity, and the star formation efficiency (SFE = L{sub IR}/L{sup '}{sub CO}). The mid-IR spectra show strong polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission, and our spectral decomposition suggests that the AGN makes a minimal contribution (<25%) to the mid-IR luminosity. The 70 {mu}m selected ULIRGs, which we find to be spectroscopic close pairs, are observed to have high SFE, similar to local ULIRGs and high-redshift submillimeter galaxies, consistent with enhanced IR luminosity due to an ongoing major merger. Combined with existing observations of local and high-redshift ULIRGs, we further compare the PAH, IR, and CO luminosities. We show that the ratio L{sub PAH,6.2}/L{sub IR} decreases with increasing IR luminosity for both local and high-redshift galaxies, but the trend for high-redshift galaxies is shifted to higher IR luminosities; the average L{sub PAH,6.2}/L{sub IR} ratio at a given L{sub IR} is {approx}3 times higher at high-redshift. When we normalize by the molecular gas, we find this trend to be uniform for galaxies at all redshifts and that the molecular gas is correlated with the PAH dust emission. The similar trends seen in the [C II] to molecular gas ratios in other studies suggests that PAH emission, like [C II], continues to be a good tracer of photodissociation regions even at high-redshift. Together the CO, PAH, and far-IR fine structure lines should be useful for constraining the interstellar medium conditions in high-redshift galaxies.
- OSTI ID:
- 22121818
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 772, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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