Decomposing Dusty Galaxies: Probing the Nature of the Obscured Energy Source in ULIRGs

Details Decomposing Dusty Galaxies: Probing the Nature of the Obscured Energy Source in ULIRGs Decomposing Dusty Galaxies: Probing the Nature of the Obscured Energy Source in ULIRGs

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20914910m&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #149.10; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) have power outputs rivaling quasars, yet emit nearly all of their energy in the midand far-infrared. Both starburst and/or dust-enshrouded AGN activity have been implicated as the sources of power within ULIRGs. While rare in the local universe, ULIRGs may play a dominant role in producing the far-infrared background and star formation energy density at high redshifts. A sample of more than 100 ULIRGs has recently been observed as part of the Spitzer/IRS GTO program. Here, we apply to this sample a new technique we have developed to decompose the infrared spectral energy distributions of dusty galaxies into emission from silicate and graphite dust at different characteristic temperatures, PAHs, atomic and molecular lines, and stellar photospheres. We also apply the decomposition method to a sample of well-studied template starburst galaxies and AGNs which are used as comparison sources. We use these decompositions to quantify the distribution of luminosities of the various dust and PAH components as a function of total infrared luminosity, as well as the optical, near, and mid-infrared classification of each system. The decomposition method also provides an estimate of the overall dust extinction within each galaxy so that extinction corrected quantities can be estimated, illustrating the potential use of the method as a diagnostic tool to probe the energy sources within deeply enshrouded galactic nuclei.

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