SPITZER QUASAR AND ULIRG EVOLUTION STUDY (QUEST). IV. COMPARISON OF 1 Jy ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES WITH PALOMAR-GREEN QUASARS

By Sylvain Veilleux, D. Rupke, D.-C. Kim, R. Genzel, E. Sturm, D. Lutz, A. Contursi, M. Schweitzer, L. Tacconi, H. Netzer and 9 more. 2009

383 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report the results from a comprehensive study of 74 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) and 34 Palomar-Green (PG) quasars within z ∼ 0.3 observed with the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS). The contribution of nuclear activity to the bolometric luminosity in these systems is quantified using six independent methods that span a range in wavelength and give consistent results within ∼±10%–15% on average. This agreement suggests that deeply buried active galactic nuclei (AGNs) invisible to Spitzer IRS but bright in the far-infrared are not common in this sample. The average derived AGN contribution in ULIRGs is ∼35%–40%, ranging from ∼15%–35% among “cool” (f25/f60 ⩽ 0.2) optically classified H ii-like and LINER ULIRGs to ∼50 and ∼75% among warm Seyfert 2 and Seyfert 1 ULIRGs, respectively. This number exceeds ∼80% in PG QSOs. ULIRGs fall in one of three distinct AGN classes: (1) objects with small extinctions and large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) equivalent widths are highly starburst-dominated; (2) systems with large extinctions and modest PAH equivalent widths have larger AGN contributions, but still tend to be starburst-dominated; and (3) ULIRGs with both small extinctions and small PAH equivalent widths host AGN that are at least as powerful as the starbursts. The AGN contributions in class 2 ULIRGs are more uncertain than in the other objects, and we cannot formally rule out the possibility that these objects represent a physically distinct type of ULIRGs. A morphological trend is seen along the sequence (1)–(2)–(3), in general agreement with the standard ULIRG−QSO evolution scenario and suggestive of a broad peak in extinction during the intermediate stages of merger evolution. However, the scatter in this sequence, including the presence of a significant number of AGN-dominated systems prior to coalescence and starburst-dominated but fully merged systems, implies that black hole accretion, in addition to depending on the merger phase, also has a strong chaotic/random component, as in local AGNs.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/64f7aeabd82a55d380c57fa3da5c85c0ea02e779

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

FAST MOLECULAR OUTFLOWS IN LUMINOUS GALAXY MERGERS: EVIDENCE FOR QUASAR FEEDBACK FROM HERSCHEL (2013, background): “GTO ULIRGs are cold (small f25/f60 ratio) pre-mergers or recent mergers, where the bolometric and mechanical luminosities are still dominated by the nuclear starburst (Veilleux et al. 2009b, hereafter V09).”
Powerful Outflows and Feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei (2015, background): “Other galaxies show similar phenomena (cf Lonsdale et al. 2003, Tacconi et al. 2002, Veilleux et al. 2009 Riffel & Storchi–Bergmann (2011a, b) and Sturm et al. 2011: see Tables 1 and 2 of Zubovas & King 2012a for a detailed comparison with the theoretical predictions).”
Massive molecular outflows and evidence for AGN feedback from CO observations (2013, methodology): “We then evaluate the AGN bolometric luminosity for these ULIRGs by assuming LBol = 1.15 LIR (Veilleux et al. 2009).”
INTEGRAL FIELD SPECTROSCOPY OF MASSIVE, KILOPARSEC-SCALE OUTFLOWS IN THE INFRARED-LUMINOUS QSO Mrk 231 (2011, methodology): “(These numbers are computed by assuming the bulk of the galaxy’s radiation emerges in the far-infrared, using the AGN contribution to Mrk 231’s bolometric luminosity from Veilleux et al. 2009, and calculating the star formation rate with the formula from Kennicutt 1998.)”
EXPLAINING THE [C ii]157.7 μm DEFICIT IN LUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES—FIRST RESULTS FROM A HERSCHEL/PACS STUDY OF THE GOALS SAMPLE (2013, methodology): “…widely used for the detection of AGN activity in galaxies at low and high redshifts (Genzel et al. 1998; Armus et al. 2007; Desai et al. 2007; Spoon et al. 2007; Pope et al. 2008; Murphy et al. 2009; MenéndezDelmestre et al. 2009; Veilleux et al. 2009; Petric et al. 2011; Stierwalt et al. 2013a).”
Revisiting the Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei (2015, background): “A low redshift sample of this type is the QUEST (Quasar/ULIRG Evolutionary Study) sample (see Veilleux et al. 2006, 2009, Veilleux et al. 2009, and references therein).”
A unified model for galactic discs: star formation, turbulence driving, and mass transport (2017, methodology): “For IR data from Veilleux et al. (2009), we subtract off the active galactic nucleus (AGN) contribution using their estimates.”
The physics of galactic winds driven by active galactic nuclei (2012, neutral): “(e.g., Veilleux et al. 2009).”
C-GOALS: Chandra observations of a complete sample of luminous infrared galaxies from the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Survey (2011, background): “…a primary stage in the formation of massive ellipticals, the formation of globular clusters, and the metal enrichment of the intergalactic medium (see Sanders & Mirabel 1996, for a more complete review and, e.g., Chapman et al 2005, Hopkins et al 2006, Veilleux et al 2009 for recent developments).”
STELLAR VELOCITY DISPERSION MEASUREMENTS IN HIGH-LUMINOSITY QUASAR HOSTS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AGN BLACK HOLE MASS SCALE (2013, methodology): “In addition, luminous AGNs are more often found in massive early-type galaxies with young stellar populations (e.g., Sanders et al. 1988; Kauffmann et al. 2003; Veilleux et al. 2009).”
The Coevolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes: Insights from Surveys of the Contemporary Universe (2014, methodology): “For each object, the fractions of the bolometric luminosity due to a starburst and AGN were determined following the analysis of Veilleux et al. (2009).”
Kiloparsec-scale outflows are prevalent among luminous AGN: outflows and feedback in the context of the overall AGN population (2014, methodology): “We found that the AGN luminosities and IR luminosities are well matched (within a factor of.2) between our method and that in Veilleux et al. (2009).”
Enhanced star formation rates in AGN hosts with respect to inactive galaxies from PEP-Herschel observations (2012, methodology): “Although a morphological analysis is beyond the scope of the present study, we note that the morphological mix in the low-LX and high-LX AGNs subsamples may in general be different (e.g. Hutchings et al. 2002, 2009; Veilleux et al. 2009a; Mainieri et al. 2011; Kocevski et al. 2012).”
Active galactic nuclei: what’s in a name? (2017, background): “…based on certain spectral features, such as high ionisation emission lines like [Nev], [Ne ii] and [O iv], the EW of PAH features and the strength of the silicate feature at 9.7 µm (see, e.g. Spoon et al. 2007; Armus et al. 2007; Veilleux et al. 2009; Hernán-Caballero and Hatziminaoglou 2011).”
Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – IX. Merger-induced AGN activity as traced by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (2014, background): “…been a number of mid-infrared studies of interacting galaxies, virtually all past studies have employed small samples of galaxies and/or have targeted the most advanced stage mergers (e.g., Genzel et al. 1998; Veilleux et al. 2009; Armus et al. 2007, 2009; Farrah et al. 2007; Petric et al. 2011).”
THE BULK OF THE BLACK HOLE GROWTH SINCE z ∼ 1 OCCURS IN A SECULAR UNIVERSE: NO MAJOR MERGER–AGN CONNECTION (2010, background): “The AGN phase is said to happen after coalescence, but observations of large samples of ULIRGs, all of them undergoing interactions, have found a significant scatter in the trends of AGN contribution, accretion rate, and dust obscuration with merging state (Veilleux et al. 2009).”
A Herschel/PACS Far-infrared Line Emission Survey of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies (2017, methodology): “And while the presence of active galactic nuclei (AGN) in LIRGs is frequent (Petric et al. 2011; Alonso-Herrero et al. 2012), their contribution to the bolometric luminosity of the hosts is still very limited in comparison to ultra-luminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs; LIR ≥ 10 12L⊙ Veilleux et al. 2009).”
THE MULTIPHASE STRUCTURE AND POWER SOURCES OF GALACTIC WINDS IN MAJOR MERGERS (2013, methodology): “However, spatially-resolved and multiphase data, as in the case of Mrk 231, and the advent of precise nuclear AGN luminosities for individual major mergers (Veilleux et al. 2009) have the potential to alter this conclusion.”