Keck Absorption-Line Spectroscopy of Galactic Winds in Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies

By D. Rupke, Sylvain Veilleux, D. Sanders. 2002

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In this paper, we present moderately high resolution (~65 km s-1) spectroscopy, acquired with the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager on Keck II, of 11 ultraluminous infrared galaxies at z < 0.3 from the IRAS 1 Jy sample. The targets were chosen as good candidates to host galaxy-scale outflows, and most have infrared luminosities dominated by star formation. We use a χ2 minimization to fit one- to three-component profiles to the Na I D interstellar absorption doublet in each object. Assuming that gas blueshifted by more than 70 km s-1 relative to the systemic velocity of the host is outflowing, we detect outflows in 73% of these objects. We adopt a simple model of a mass-conserving free wind to infer mass outflow rates in the range Ṁtot(H) = 13-133 M☉ yr-1 for galaxies hosting a wind. These values of Ṁtot, normalized to the corresponding global star formation rates inferred from infrared luminosities, are in the range η ≡ Ṁtot/SFR = 0.1-0.7. This is on average a factor of only 10 less than η from recent measurements of nearby dwarfs, edge-on spirals, and lower luminosity infrared galaxies. Within our sample, we conclude that η has no dependence on the mass of the host (parameterized by host galaxy kinematics and absolute R- and K'-band magnitudes). We also attempt to estimate the average escape fraction ⟨fesc⟩ ≡ ∑ Ṁ/ ∑ Ṁ and "ejection efficiency" ⟨δ⟩ ≡ ∑ Ṁ/ ∑ SFRi for our sample, which we find to be ~0.4-0.5 and ~0.1, respectively. The complex absorption-line properties of Mrk 231, an ultraluminous infrared galaxy that is optically classified as a Seyfert 1, are discussed separately in an appendix.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/57bcd5a86540193c3d15c3238a90b93d8715a2f3

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Citations in the corpus

FAST MOLECULAR OUTFLOWS IN LUMINOUS GALAXY MERGERS: EVIDENCE FOR QUASAR FEEDBACK FROM HERSCHEL (2013, background): “The velocities of local neutral gas outflows traced by Na I show a tendency to become more negative with increasing host galaxy stellar velocity dispersions and stellar masses (e.g., Rupke et al. 2002, 2005bc; Martin 2005; Chen et al. 2010).”
THE MULTIPHASE STRUCTURE AND POWER SOURCES OF GALACTIC WINDS IN MAJOR MERGERS (2013, methodology): “To compute the H column density, we first find the Na column density, which depends on the measured optical depth and velocity width in a simple way for our assumption of a Gaussian velocity distribution in each component (see, e.g., the formula in Rupke et al. 2002).”
The Rest-Frame Optical Spectra of SCUBA Galaxies (2004, methodology): “This is slightly surprising since many local luminous/ultraluminous infrared galaxies display velocity offsets of several hundred kilometers per second between these lines (Heckman et al. 2000; Rupke et al. 2002).”
Mapping Large-Scale Gaseous Outflows in Ultraluminous Galaxies with Keck II ESI Spectra: Variations in Outflow Velocity with Galactic Mass (2004, background): “The selection was random unlike the Rupke et al. (2002) sample which preselected galaxies with outflows from the 1 Jy survey.”
Outflows in Infrared-Luminous Starbursts at z < 0.5. I. Sample, Na I D Spectra, and Profile Fitting (2005, methodology): “We can estimate the expected stellar contribution to Na iD by scaling the equivalent width of the Mg i b triplet, kk5167, 5173, 5185 (Heckman et al. 2000; Rupke et al. 2002).”
ABSORPTION-LINE PROBES OF THE PREVALENCE AND PROPERTIES OF OUTFLOWS IN PRESENT-DAY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2010, methodology): “In previous studies of LIRGs and ULIRGs (Martin 2005, 2006; Rupke et al. 2005a,b), stellar Na D absorption was estimated from Mg I, and deemed to contribute only a small fraction (< 10”
Fast neutral outflows in powerful radio galaxies : a major source of feedback in massive galaxies (2005, background): “The mass outflow rate has been calculated following Heckman (2002) and Rupke et al. (2002): Ṁ = 30 · Ω 4π · r∗ 1 kpc · NH 1021 cm−2 · v 300 kms−1 M⊙ yr −1 (1) where the mass is flowing at a velocity v (for which we used the FWZI/2 of the blueshifted component) into a solid angle Ω assumed to be π…”
Formation of z~6 Quasars from Hierarchical Galaxy Mergers (2006, background): “…to prevail in both local star-forming galaxies as indicated by blueshifted optical absorption lines (e.g., Martin 1999, 2005; Heckman et al. 2000; Rupke et al. 2002, 2005) and Lyman break galaxies at z 3 as indicated by blueshifted interstellar absorption lines and redshifted Ly emission lines…”
Outflows in Active Galactic Nucleus/Starburst-Composite Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (2005, methodology): “Broad Absorption Line Modeling In Rupke et al. (2002) we discuss in detail our method for modeling the BAL in Mrk 231.”
FEEDBACK IN LUMINOUS OBSCURED QUASARS (2011, methodology): “At each spatial position we also measure the “maximum” and “minimum” velocities as the velocities at 20% of the [OIII ] peak intensity (e.g., Rupke et al. 2002) relative to the systemic velocity of the stars (shown as blue bullseyes and red crosses, respectively, in Figure 4.)”
First results from the TNG50 simulation: galactic outflows driven by supernovae and black hole feedback (2019, background): “Observationally there exists a broad correlation between outflow velocity and gas phase temperature, such that neutral phases are slower than ionized components (Heckman et al. 2001; Rupke et al. 2002), which are themselves slower than a hot wind fluid phase (Veilleux et al. 2005).”
EXTREME FEEDBACK AND THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION: CLUES IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE (2011, background): “…all arise in the same ionic species, but which span a range in oscillator strengths, a comparison of the absorption profiles among these lines allows us to estimate the optical depth and covering factor of the gas (e.g. Heckman et al. 2000; Rupke et al. 2002; Quider et al. 2009; Erb et al. 2010).”