Measuring star formation and black hole accretion rates in tandem using mid-infrared spectra of local infrared luminous galaxies. (2022)
Keywords :
Luminous infrared galaxies ; Ultraluminous infrared galaxies ; Supermassive black holes ; Star formation ; Galaxy evolution
Abstract:We present the results of a stacking analysis performed on Spitzer/Infrared Spectrograph high-resolution mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectra of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey. By binning in relation to mid-IR active galactic nucleus (AGN) fraction and stacking spectra, we detect bright emission lines [NeII] and [NeIII], which trace star formation, and fainter emission lines [NeV] and [OIV], which trace AGN activity, throughout the sample. We find that the [NeII] luminosity is fairly constant across all AGN fraction bins, while the [OIV] and [NeV] luminosities increase by over an order of magnitude. Our measured average line ratios, [NeV]/[NeII] and [OIV]/[NeII], at low AGN
...(more)
Our sample consists of GOALS galaxies with high-resolution (R=600)
Spitzer/IRS data in both the short-high (SH) and long-high (LH)
channels (Inami+ 2013, J/ApJ/777/156). We retrieved the 1D reduced
spectra from the Infrared Science Archive (GOALS Team 2020,
doi:10.26131/IRSA183).
We perform a spectral stacking analysis as a function of mid-IR AGN
fraction using 203 Spitzer/IRS spectra of the GOALS sample in order to
explore the coevolution of the mid-IR atomic emission lines 12.8um
[NeII], 14.3um [NeV], 15.5um [NeIII], and 25.9um [OIV].
- J/AJ/126/1607 : IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample (Sanders+, 2003)
- J/ApJ/656/770 : Mid-IR spectrum of star-forming galaxies (Smith+, 2007)
- J/ApJS/182/628 : Spitzer quasar and ULIRG evolution study (Veilleux+, 2009)
- J/ApJ/723/993 : Spatial extent of LIRGs in the MIR. I. (Diaz-Santos+, 2010)
- J/ApJ/725/2270 : Mid-IR emission lines in AGNs (Pereira-Santaella+, 2010)
- J/ApJ/709/1257 : Spitzer-IRS sp. of Seyfert galaxies. II. (Tommasin+, 2010)
- J/ApJ/741/32 : Spatial extent of LIRGs in the MIR. II. (Diaz-Santos+, 2011)
- J/ApJ/777/156 : Spitzer/IRS sp. of GOALS luminous IR galaxies (Inami+, 2013)
- J/ApJS/206/1 : Mid-IR properties of GOALS nearby LIRGs (Stierwalt+, 2013)
- J/ApJ/790/124 : Dust and gas physics of the GOALS sample (Stierwalt+, 2014)
- J/A+A/574/A4 : Radio image of Luminous IR Galaxies (Vardoulaki+, 2015)
- J/ApJ/846/32 : Herschel FIR spectra of GOALS galaxies (Diaz-Santos+, 2017)
- J/MNRAS/487/1823 : MIR spectra of AGNs heating molecular gas (Lambrides+, 2019)
- http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/GOALS/ : GOALS IRSA data access
