Optical integral field spectroscopy of intermediate redshift infrared
bright galaxies
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Oxford University Press (OUP)
Authors:
M Pereira-Santaella, D Rigopoulou, GE Magdis, N Thatte, A Alonso-Herrero, F Clarke, D Farrah, S Garc铆a-Burillo, L Hogan, S Morris, M Rodrigues, J-S Huang, M Tecza
Abstract:
The extreme infrared (IR) luminosity of local luminous and ultra-luminous IR
galaxies (U/LIRGs; 11 < log LIR /Lsun < 12 and log LIR /Lsun > 12,
respectively) is mainly powered by star-formation processes triggered by
mergers or interactions. While U/LIRGs are rare locally, at z > 1, they become
more common, they dominate the star-formation rate (SFR) density, and a
fraction of them are found to be normal disk galaxies. Therefore, there must be
an evolution of the mechanism triggering these intense starbursts with
redshift. To investigate this evolution, we present new optical SWIFT integral
field spectroscopic H{\alpha}+[NII] observations of a sample of 9
intermediate-z (0.2 < z < 0.4) U/LIRG systems selected from Herschel 250{\mu}m
observations. The main results are the following: (a) the ratios between the
velocity dispersion and the rotation curve amplitude indicate that 10-25% (1-2
out of 8) might be compatible with being isolated disks while the remaining
objects are interacting/merging systems; (b) the ratio between un-obscured and
obscured SFR traced by H{\alpha} and LIR, respectively, is similar in both
local and these intermediate-z U/LIRGs; and (c) the ratio between 250{\mu}m and
the total IR luminosities of these intermediate-z U/LIRGs is higher than that
of local U/LIRGs with the same LIR . This indicates a reduced dust temperature
in these intermediate-z U/LIRGs. This, together with their already measured
enhanced molecular gas content, suggests that the interstellar medium
conditions are different in our sample of intermediate-z galaxies when compared
to local U/LIRGs.
