Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging of the IRAS 1 Jy Sample of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. II. The Analysis

By Sylvain Veilleux, D.-C. Kim, D. Sanders. 2002

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An R and K′ atlas of the IRAS 1 Jy sample of 118 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) was presented in a companion paper (our Paper I). The present paper discusses the results from the analysis of these images supplemented with new spectroscopic data obtained at Keck. All but one object in the 1 Jy sample show signs of a strong tidal interaction/merger. Multiple mergers involving more than two galaxies are seen in no more than five of the 118 (<5%) systems. None of the 1 Jy sources is in the first-approach stage of the interaction, and most (56%) of them harbor a single disturbed nucleus and are therefore in the later stages of a merger. Seyfert galaxies (especially those of type 1), warm ULIGs (f25/f60 > 0.2), and the more luminous systems (>1012.5 L☉) all show a strong tendency to be advanced mergers with a single nucleus. The individual galaxies in the binary systems of the 1 Jy sample show a broad distribution in host magnitudes (luminosities) with a mean of -21.02 ± 0.76 mag (0.85 L*) at R and -23.98 ± 1.25 mag (0.90 L*) at K′, and a R- or K′-band luminosity ratio generally less than ~4. Single-nucleus ULIGs also show a broad distribution in host magnitudes (luminosities) with an average of -21.77 ± 0.92 mag (1.69 L*) at R and -25.03 ± 0.94 mag (2.36) at K′. These distributions overlap considerably with those of quasars. The same statement applies to R-K' colors in ULIG and quasar hosts. An analysis of the surface brightness profiles of the host galaxies in single-nucleus sources reveals that about 73% of the R and K′ surface brightness profiles are fitted adequately by an elliptical-like R1/4 law. These elliptical-like 1 Jy systems have luminosity and R-band axial ratio distributions that are similar to those of normal (inactive) intermediate-luminosity ellipticals and follow with some scatter the same μe-re relation, giving credence to the idea that some of these objects may eventually become intermediate-luminosity elliptical galaxies if they get rid of their excess gas or transform this gas into stars. These elliptical-like hosts are most common among merger remnants with Seyfert 1 nuclei (83%), Seyfert 2 optical characteristics (69%), or mid-infrared (ISO) AGN signatures (80%). The mean half-light radius of these ULIGs is 4.80 ± 1.37 kpc at R and 3.48 ± 1.39 kpc at K′, typical of intermediate-luminosity ellipticals. These values are in excellent agreement with recent quasar measurements obtained at H with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), but they are systematically lower than other HST measurements derived at R. The reason for this discrepancy between the two quasar data sets is not known. In general, the results from the present study are consistent with the merger-driven evolutionary sequence "cool ULIGs→warm ULIGs→quasars." However, many exceptions appear to exist to this simple picture (e.g., 46% of the 41 advanced mergers show no obvious signs of Seyfert activity). This underlines the importance of using a large homogeneous sample like the 1 Jy sample to draw statistically meaningful conclusions; the problems of small sample size and/or inhomogeneous selection criteria have plagued many studies of luminous infrared galaxies in the past.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

Formation of z~6 Quasars from Hierarchical Galaxy Mergers (2006, background): “First, it is believed that major mergers play the most important role in the formation and evolution of massive galaxies (e.g., Sanders & Mirabel 1996; Scoville et al. 2000; Veilleux et al. 2002; Conselice et al. 2003; Dasyra et al. 2006).”
Ionized gas outflows and global kinematics of low-z luminous star-forming galaxies (2014, methodology): “…variety of morphologies and dynamical phases, from regular isolated spirals for low luminosity LIRGs to mergers for most ULIRGs (Borne et al. 2000; Farrah et al. 2001; Bushouse et al. 2002; Veilleux et al. 2002; Arribas et al. 2004), covering a wide range of dynamical mass (Bellocchi et al. 2013).”
Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, background): “…the majority of systems above∼1011.5L⊙ – or above star formation rates∼50M⊙ yr−1– were major mergers of two or more equal-mass galaxies (de Jong et al., 1984; Soifer et al., 1984; Lonsdale et al., 1984; Joseph and Wright, 1985; Veilleux et al., 2002, for a review, see Sanders and Mirabel, 1996).”
Luminous Infrared Galaxies with the Submillimeter Array. I. Survey Overview and the Central Gas to Dust Ratio (2008, background): “Although their high rates of star formation and accretion appear to be triggered by the merger of two gas-rich galaxies (Sanders et al. 1988a; Veilleux et al. 2002), the detailed physical connection between galaxy mergers and star formation and, in particular, the time evolution of this process, is…”
The Rest-Frame Optical Properties of SCUBA Galaxies (2004, methodology): “We show in Figure 6 the K-band Hubble diagram for our sample of dusty, luminous galaxies and compare this with the behavior of local and more distant ULIRGs, as well as samples of powerful, high-redshift radio galaxies.”
THE MOLECULAR GAS IN LUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES. II. EXTREME PHYSICAL CONDITIONS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE Xco FACTOR (2012, background): “IRAS05189–2524 This is Sy2 galaxy that appears to be a late stage merger with a very red compact nucleus and a tidal tail, (Farrah et al. 2003; Veilleux et al. 2002).”
THE IMPACT OF INTERACTIONS, BARS, BULGES, AND ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI ON STAR FORMATION EFFICIENCY IN LOCAL MASSIVE GALAXIES (2012, background): “…connected to merging activity in the most extreme cases (ultraluminous infrared galaxies and sub-millimeter galaxies, e.g. Solomon et al. 1997; Veilleux et al. 2002; Engel et al. 2010), there is no one-to-one correlation between a high infrared luminosity (LFIR > 10 11L⊙) and the need for a…”
Dynamical Properties of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. I. Mass Ratio Conditions for ULIRG Activity in Interacting Pairs (2005, methodology): “The ULIRG phase occurs in mergers after the first peripassage (e.g., Sanders & Mirabel 1996; Veilleux et al. 2002) to postcoalescence.”
Galaxy Interactions Trigger Rapid Black Hole Growth: an unprecedented view from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey (2017, background): “In terms of the interaction classification outlined by Veilleux et al. (2002), these galaxies would be classified as IIIa:wide binary (right column), IIIb:close binary (top-left) and IV:Merger (bottom-left).6 These four examples exhibit relatively wide ranges in parameters such as their…”
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Molecular and atomic gas along and across the main sequence of star-forming galaxies (2016, background): “…well above the main sequence have star formation effici ncies enhanced by an order of magnitude (e.g.Gao & Solomon 2004; Genzel et al. 2010; Daddi et al. 2010), and that almost all of these most extreme systems are major mergers (Sanders & Mirabel 1996; Veilleux et al. 2002; Engel et al. 2010).”
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Outflows in Active Galactic Nucleus/Starburst-Composite Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (2005, methodology): “Seyfert ULIRGs are on average later in the stages of merging than starburst-dominated ULIRGs (Veilleux et al. 2002).”
Outflows in Infrared-Luminous Starbursts at z < 0.5. I. Sample, Na I D Spectra, and Profile Fitting (2005, background): “For the 1 Jy galaxies, these are host galaxy magnitudes (Veilleux et al. 2002).”