Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T05:58:43.776Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Powers Ultra-Luminous IRAS Galaxies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

R.B. Partridge ,
J. Marr ,
T. Crawford  and
M. Strauss
R.B. Partridge
Affiliation:
Haverford College – Haverford, PA 19041, USA Princeton University – Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
J. Marr
Affiliation:
Haverford College – Haverford, PA 19041, USA Princeton University – Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
T. Crawford
Affiliation:
Haverford College – Haverford, PA 19041, USA Princeton University – Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
M. Strauss
Affiliation:
Haverford College – Haverford, PA 19041, USA Princeton University – Princeton, NJ 08540, USA

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

I report here centimeter–wavelength observations carried out at the Very Large Array (VLA) to help resolve two questions. First, what is the source of the far infrared (FIR) emission in infrared-luminous IRAS galaxies, active nuclei or more widely distributed star formation? And what physics underlies the tight correlation (Helou et al., 1985) between FIR and radio flux? To test potential answers to these questions, we believe it is important to study the most luminous IRAS galaxies. We selected 39 for study from the ultraluminous catalog of Strauss et al.(1990 and 1992). All sources had FIR luminosity ≥ 1011.4 L⊙. Radio wavelength observations of these systems provide several advantages. First, in the radio there is no obscuration, so we can “see” the active galactic nuclei, if present. Radio spectral indices can distinguish between synchrotron and thermal emission. And finally, observations at the VLA provide sub–kpc resolution. We observed these sources with the VLA in its C configuration. At 1460 MHz, the effective resolution was ≃ 15″; and ≃ 4″ at 4860 MHz. We made follow-up observations on 24 sources in the A configuration with resolution at 4860 MHz of ≃ 0″.5 (or 300–800 h–1 pc for these sources).

Type
Relation between Radio and Other Wavelenghts
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 175: Extragalactic Radio Sources , 1996 , pp. 215 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996 

References

Condon, J. J., Huang, Z.-P., Yin, Q. F., and Thuan, T. X. 1991, Ap. J. 378, 65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, T., Marr, J., Partridge, B., and Strauss, M. 1996, “VLA Observations of Ultraluminous IRAS Galaxies: Active Nuclei or Starbursts?” Ap. J. , March 20 issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helou, G., and Bicay, M. D. 1993, Ap. J. 415, 93.Google Scholar
Helou, G., Soifer, B. T., and Rowan-Robinson, M. 1985, Ap. J. (Letters) 298, L7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, R. P., Allen, D. A., Sramek, R. A., Kesteven, M. J., and Troup, E. R. 1990, Ap. J. 359, 291.Google Scholar
Strauss, M. A., Davis, M., Yahil, A., and Huchra, J. P. 1990, Ap. J. 361, 49.Google Scholar
Strauss, M. A., Huchra, J. P., Davis, M., Yahil, A., Fisher, K. B., and Tonry, J. 1992, Ap. J. Suppl. 83, 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar