Massive Star Formation and Evolution in Starburst Galaxies: Mid-infrared Spectroscopy with the ISO Short Wavelength Spectrometer

By M. Thornley, N. F. Förster Schreiber, D. Lutz, R. Genzel, H. Spoon, D. Kunze, A. Sternberg. 2000

179 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present new Infrared Space Observatory Short Wavelength Spectrometer data for a sample of 27 starburst galaxies, and with these data we examine the issues of formation and evolution of the most massive stars in starburst galaxies. Using starburst models which incorporate time evolution, new stellar atmosphere models for massive stars, and a starburst model geometry derived from observations of the prototypical starburst M82, we model the integrated mid-infrared line ratio [Ne III](15.6 μm)/[Ne II](12.8 μm). This line ratio is sensitive to the hardness of the stellar energy distribution and therefore to the most massive stars present. We conclude from our models, with consideration of recent determinations of the stellar census in local, high-mass star-forming regions, that the [Ne III]/[Ne II] ratios we measure are consistent with the formation of massive (~50-100 M☉) stars in most starbursts. In this framework, the low nebular excitation inferred from the measured line ratios can be attributed to aging effects. By including estimates of the ratio of infrared-to-Lyman continuum luminosity for the galaxies in our sample, we further find that most starbursts are relatively short-lived (106-107 yr), only a few O star lifetimes. We discuss a possible cause of such short events: the effectiveness of stellar winds and supernovae in destroying the starburst environment.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1d977d1bed9efea16560192645fa342ff98ea4cc

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THE NATURE OF STARBURSTS. I. THE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF EIGHTEEN NEARBY STARBURST DWARF GALAXIES (2010, background): “These short durations would seem to corroborate the idea of “self-quenching” derived by calculations balancing the kinetic energy output of SNe with the binding energy of the gas (Thornley et al. 2000).”
Mid-Infrared Properties of Low-Metallicity Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies from the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (2005, background): “Because of the rather large difference in the ionization potentials of Ne++ (41 eV) and Ne+ (22 eV), the ratio of [Ne iii]/[Ne ii] is a good tracer of the hardness of the interstellar radiation field (Thornley et al. 2000).”
The Nature of Starburst Activity in M82 (2000, methodology): “As discussed by Giveon et al. (2002) and Thornley et al. (2000), the inclusion of the Pauldrach et al. models is critical for the photoionization modeling because their SEDs are significantly harder than for hydrostatic plane-parallel LTE models such as those of Kurucz (1992).”
SPITZER QUASAR AND ULIRG EVOLUTION STUDY (QUEST). IV. COMPARISON OF 1 Jy ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES WITH PALOMAR-GREEN QUASARS (2009, methodology): “The ([Ne III] 15.5 µm)/([Ne II] 12.8 µm) line ratio is commonly used to diagnose the excitation properties of star-forming galaxies (e.g., Thornley et al. 2000; Verma et al. 2003; Brandl et al. 2006).”
The Mid-Infrared Spectrum of Star-forming Galaxies: Global Properties of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission (2006, background): “The strong line pair ratio [Ne iii]/[Ne ii] pro- vides an indicator of radiation hardness unaffected by all but the heaviest dust extinction (Thornley et al. 2000).”
The Star-forming Torus and Stellar Dynamical Black Hole Mass in the Seyfert 1 Nucleus of NGC 3227 (2006, methodology): “The data were generated using the population synthesis code STARS (Sternberg 1998; Thornley et al. 2000; Davies et al. 2003; Sternberg et al. 2003; Davies et al. 2005), which calculates the distributions of stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram as a function of age for exponentially decaying…”
Stellar and wind properties of massive stars in the central parsec of the Galaxy (2006, methodology): “The third problem with the ionisation of the Galactic Center region was also pointed out by Lutz (1999) (see also Thornley et al. 2000).”
High-Resolution Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (2007, methodology): “We might also expect [Ne iii] and [S iv] to increase in strength relative to [Ne ii] and [S iii] in lower density and/or lower metallicity star-forming regions (Thornley et al. 2000; Ho&Keto 2007).”
The Mid-Infrared Properties of Starburst Galaxies from Spitzer-IRS Spectroscopy (2006, unknown): “…et al. (1996), Lutz et al. (1998), Rigopoulou et al. (1999), Dale et al. (2000), Helou et al. (2000), Laurent et al. (2000), Sturm et al. (2000), Thornley et al. (2000), Charmandaris et al. (2001), Förster Schreiber et al. (2003), Lu et al. (2003), Verma et al. (2003), Tacconi-Garman et al.…”
Detection of the Buried Active Galactic Nucleus in NGC 6240 with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope (2005, background): “It is, however, completely consistent with a moderate excitation starburst galaxy (Thornley et al. 2000, Verma et al. 2003).”
Starburst and AGN activity in ultraluminous infrared galaxies (2003, background): “Thornley et al (2000) derive a starburst lifetime range of 106 − 107 years, and infer that galactic superwinds produced by supernovae may be responsible for the short duration.”
Spitzer Quasar and ULIRG Evolution Study (QUEST). I. The Origin of the Far-Infrared Continuum of QSOs (2006, background): “…for FIR with either [O iv] 25.9 m or [Ne v] 14.3 m. [Ne ii] 12.8 m is a line that is emitted both in the NLR of AGNs (Sturm et al. 2002), with higher excitation lines usually being stronger, and as the strongest MIR line in the spectra of most starbursts (Thornley et al. 2000; Verma et al. 2003).”
ISM properties in low-metallicity environments I. mid-infrared spectra of dwarf galaxies (2005, background): “Thornley et al. (2000) studied a large sample of starburst galaxies, and found relatively low [Ne iii]/[Ne ii] line ratios observed in solar metallicity starburst galaxies ( ≤ 0.8).”
Ionizing Photon Emission Rates from O- and Early B-Type Stars and Clusters (2003, methodology): “We have incorporated our model atmospheres into our population synthesis code STARS (Sternberg 1998; Thornley et al. 2000) to compute the time-dependent ionizing spectral energy distributions, and Lyc and He I photon emission rates, for evolving stellar clusters.”
A VLT study of metal-rich extragalactic H II regions - I. Observations and empirical abundances (2005, background): “It has been suggested by several authors that at high metallicity the massive star Initial Mass Function deviates from the standard Salpeter function, for example with an upper mass cutoff as low as 30 M (Goldader et al. 1997; Bresolin et al. 1999; Thornley et al. 2000).”