Mid-IR spectroscopy of high-redshift ultraluminous dusty galaxies

Details Mid-IR spectroscopy of high-redshift ultraluminous dusty galaxies Mid-IR spectroscopy of high-redshift ultraluminous dusty galaxies

Jun 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005sptz.prop20081b&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #20081

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

We propose deep IRS spectroscopy of a unique sample of 64 ultraluminous submillimeter-detected galaxies (SMGs) with known spectroscopic redshifts from 0.5 to 3.6. The median of their redshift distribution is z=2.4, spanning the peak epoch of massive galaxy formation activity and AGN fuelling. The SMG population certainly includes some of the most massive galaxies in the Universe. Much less common low-redshift galaxies with similar IR luminosities show a rich variety of mid-infrared(IR) gas and solid-phase spectroscopic features, revealing the physical conditions in the most active regions of these highly obscured systems, and especially the importance of AGN for powering their far-IR luminosity. The known redshifts and confirmed high luminosities will allow both the unambiguous interpretation of individual spectra, and a stacking analysis to reveal population-wide spectral features, as a function of color, magnitude and evolutionary state, as revealed by extensive multiwavelength data, including optical and near-IR imaging at HST resolution, and all a handful have archived or scheduled IRAC and MIPS imaging. IRS spectroscopy will contrast their mid-IR spectra with local analogs immune to the effects of dust extinction. For the subset of 21 targets with ultradeep X-ray data, we will be able to compare the relative power of X-ray and mid-IR diagnostics to reveal buried AGN activity. This ambitious IRS project will provide our first insight into the astrophysics of a large sample of ultraluminous galaxies spanning 80% of the lifetime of the Universe.

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