A Spitzer/IRS Study of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies

Details A Spitzer/IRS Study of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies A Spitzer/IRS Study of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies

2010-05-06

arxiv.org/abs/1005.0971v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Galaxy Astrophysics

To appear in the conference proceedings of the "Reionization to Exoplanets: Spitzer's Growing Legacy" meeting

Scientific paper

We present the first results of our program to study a sample of local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs, L_IR = 10^11-10^12 L_sun) with the Spitzer infrared spectrograph (IRS). In these proceedings we investigate the behavior of the 9.7 um silicate feature in LIRGs. As opposed to the extreme silicate absorptions observed in ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs, L_IR = 10^12-10^13 L_sun), LIRGs exhibit intermediate silicate absorption features, comparable to those of starburst galaxies. We also find that most of the LIRGs have the minima of the [NeIII]/[NeII] ratio located at their nuclei. It is likely that increased densities in the nuclei are responsible for the smaller nuclear ratios. In the nuclei, it is also possible that the most massive stars are either absent, or still embedded in ultracompact HII regions. Finally we discuss the possible contribution of an AGN to the nuclear mid-IR emission of the galaxy, which in general is low in these local LIRGs.

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