Ultraluminous Infrared Mergers: Elliptical Galaxies in Formation?

By R. Genzel, L. Tacconi, D. Rigopoulou, D. Lutz, M. Tecza. 2001

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We report high-quality near-IR spectroscopy of 12 ultraluminous infrared galaxy mergers (ULIRGs). Our new VLT and Keck data provide ~0.″5 resolution, stellar and gas kinematics of these galaxies, most of which are compact systems in the last merger stages. We confirm that ULIRG mergers are "ellipticals in formation." Random motions dominate their stellar dynamics, but significant rotation is common. Gasdynamics and stellar dynamics are decoupled in most systems. ULIRGs fall on or near the fundamental plane of hot stellar systems, and especially on its less evolution-sensitive, reff-σ projection. The ULIRG velocity dispersion distribution, their location in the fundamental plane, and their distribution of vrot sin i/σ closely resemble those of intermediate-mass (~L*), elliptical galaxies with moderate rotation. As a group ULIRGs do not resemble giant ellipticals with large cores and little rotation. Our results are in good agreement with other recent studies indicating that disky ellipticals with compact cores or cusps can form through dissipative mergers of gas-rich disk galaxies while giant ellipticals with large cores have a different formation history.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0686d5ae61d28fc75c2f1de4ec00c4367356b401

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Citations in the corpus

Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging of the IRAS 1 Jy Sample of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. II. The Analysis (2002, methodology): “Considerable efforts have been invested in recent years to constrain the stellar kinematics in the cores of luminous infrared mergers (e.g., Doyon et al. 1994; Shier & Fischer 1998; James et al. 1999; Genzel et al. 2001).”
THE MOLECULAR GAS IN LUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES. II. EXTREME PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE Xco FACTOR (2012, methodology): “The gas dynamics as revealed by CO J=1–0 interferometry (DS98) is strongly 3The wide beam of the CSO was used to obtain the CO 6-5 measurent for this extended object – 60 – decoupled from stellar dynamics (Genzel et al. 2001), another hallmark of strong mergers.”
HOW DO DISKS SURVIVE MERGERS? (2008, background): “…in considerable abundance in the local universe (Schweizer 1982; Lake & Dressler 1986; Doyon et al. 1994; Shier & Fischer 1998; James et al. 1999; Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002; Dasyra et al. 2006, 2007; Rothberg & Joseph 2004, 2006) as well as e.g. faint shells and tidal features…”
The host galaxies of active galactic nuclei (2003, unknown): “Genzel et al. (2001) and Tacconi et al. (2002) have recently carried out a near-infrared spectroscopic study of a sample of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs).”
The effects of gas on morphological transformation in mergers: implications for bulge and disc demographics (2009, background): “…in considerable abundance in the local universe (Schweizer 1982; Lake & Dressler 1986; Doyon et al. 1994; Shier & Fischer 1998; James et al. 1999; Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002; Rothberg & Joseph 2004; Dasyra et al. 2006) as well as, for example, faint shells and tidal features common…”
A DEEP HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE H-BAND IMAGING SURVEY OF MASSIVE GAS-RICH MERGERS. II. THE QUEST QSOs (2006, methodology): “This pilot study (Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002) has raised important questions toward understanding the evolution of ULIRG mergers and their relation to QSOs, but is limited by the small number of galaxies.”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, background): “The correlations obeyed by these mergers and remnants (e.g., Genzel et al. 2001; Rothberg & Joseph 1 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.”
THE GREAT OBSERVATORIES ALL-SKY LIRG SURVEY: COMPARISON OF ULTRAVIOLET AND FAR-INFRARED PROPERTIES (2010, background): “At the highest luminosities, ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs: LIR ≥ 10 12L⊙) may represent an important evolutionary stage in the formation of QSOs (Sanders et al. 1988a,b) and massive ellipticals (e.g., Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002).”
Radiation Pressure-supported Starburst Disks and Active Galactic Nucleus Fueling (2005, background): “The stellar velocity dispersion of Arp 220 is∼ 165 km s−1 (Genzel et al. 2001) and it has an extended CO disk with a scale of∼ 500 pc (Downes & Solomon 1998).”
Submillimeter Galaxies at z ~ 2: Evidence for Major Mergers and Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF, and CO-H2 Conversion Factor (2008, background): “…final merger of the two nuclei leads to the most powerful star-forming event during the entire merger history (Barnes & Hernquist 1996; Mihos & Hernquist 1994, 1996; Downes & Solomon 1998; Bryant & Scoville 1999; Scoville et al. 2000; Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002; Dasyra et al. 2006).”
Dynamical Properties of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. I. Mass Ratio Conditions for ULIRG Activity in Interacting Pairs (2005, methodology): “Sources of intrinsic nuclear separation close to or less than 1 kpc (Arp 220 and NGC 6240; see Genzel et al. 2001; Tecza et al. 2000) were removed from the above statistics.”
Dissipation and Extra Light in Galactic Nuclei. I. Gas-Rich Merger Remnants (2008, background): “This component is much more compact (Re ¼ 0:2 kpc), characteristic of the central starburst size scales in observed mergers and ULIRGs (e.g., Downes & Solomon 1998; Bryant & Scoville 1999; Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002).”
VLT/VIMOS integral field spectroscopy of luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies: 2D kinematic properties (2013, unknown): “It hasbeen proposed that ULIRGs are systems that transform gas-rich disk galaxies into moderate-mass ellipticals through merger evnts (i.e., Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002), with some, but not all, evolving to quasars (QSOs; Colina et al. 2001; Sanders et al. 2003).”
Outflows in Infrared-Luminous Starbursts at z < 0.5. I. Sample, Na I D Spectra, and Profile Fitting (2005, background): “Most are late-stage mergers of two gasrich spirals that are evolving into moderate-size elliptical galaxies (Sanders et al. 1991; Solomon et al. 1997; Genzel et al. 2001; Tacconi et al. 2002; Kim et al. 2002; Veilleux et al. 2002).”
Formation of gas discs in merging galaxies (2002, background): “In remnants with single nuclei the gas tends to rotate more rapidly than the stars, indicating some degree of kinematic decoupling (Genzel et al. 2001), though it’s not clear if the extreme decoupling in remnant POL 1:1 C has yet been seen in the observations.”
Near-Infrared and Star-forming Properties of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies (2006, background): “…with accompanying superstarbursts that produces LIRGs and ULIRGs appears to be an important stage in galaxy evolution, possibly even converting spiral galaxies into ellipticals (e.g., Genzel et al. 2001; Colina et al. 2001, and references therein) and giving rise to quasars (Sanders et al. 1988).”
Starburst and AGN activity in ultraluminous infrared galaxies (2003, background): “Furthermore, a recent spectroscopic study of the stellar and gas kinematic in ULIRGs (Genzel et al 2001) found that ULIRGs will likely evolve into only ∼ L∗ ellipticals, and not into the most massive ellipticals c© 2001 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1 seen locally.”
Observational evidence for AGN feedback in early-type galaxies (2007, background): “The origin of ULIRG activity is thought to be a galaxy merger (e.g. Genzel et al. 2001).”