We present the first detections of the 3um water ice and 3.4um amorphous hydrocarbon (HAC) absorption features in z~2 ULIRGs. These are based on deep rest-frame 2-8um Spitzer IRS spectra of 11 sources selected for their appreciable silicate absorption. The HAC-to-silicate ratio for our z~2 sources is typically higher by a factor of 2-5 than that observed in the Milky Way. This HAC `excess' suggests compact nuclei with steep temperature gradients as opposed to predominantly host obscuration. Beside the above molecular absorption features, we detect the 3.3um PAH emission feature in one of our sources with three more individual spectra showing evidence for it. Stacking analysis suggests that water ice, hydrocarbons, and PAH are likely present in the bulk of this sample even when not individually detected. The most unexpected result of our study is the lack of clear detections of the 4.67um CO gas absorption feature. Only three of the sources show tentative signs of this feature and at significantly lower levels than has been observed in local ULIRGs. Overall, we find that the closest local analogs to our sources, in terms of 3-4um color, HAC-to-silicate and ice-to-silicate ratios, as well as low PAH equivalent widths are sources dominated by deeply obscured nuclei. Such sources form only a small fraction of ULIRGs locally and are commonly believed to be dominated by buried AGN. Our sample suggests that, in absolute number, such buried AGN are at least an order of magnitude more common at z~2 than today. The presence of PAH suggests that significant levels of star-formation are present even if the obscured AGN typically dominate the power budget.
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Galaxies at z~0.1: the Effect of Star Formation and AGN
本文分析了92个典型恒星形成星系的多环芳烃(PAH)光谱(0.03 < z < 0.2)。我们比较了PAH发射特征与SDSS光学诊断的相对强度,以探讨PAH颗粒性质与恒星形成和活动星系核活动之间的关系。短波长与长波长的PAH比值,特别是7.7微米与11.3微米的特征比值,与恒星形成诊断值D_n(4000)和H-α等效宽度密切相关,并随着年轻恒星星族的增加而增加。这个比率也显示了活跃星系和非活跃星系之间的显着差异,活跃星系表现出较弱的7.7微米发射。由[OIII]/H-β和[NeIII]_15.6/[NeII]_12.8测量的硬辐射场对PAH比率的影响不同,这取决于该场是由星暴活动还是活动星系核引起的。我们的研究结果是一致的图片中,较大的PAH分子生长更有效地在更丰富的媒体和较小的PAH分子优先销毁活动星系核。
The Spitzer Spectroscopic Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (S4MC): Probing the Physical State of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in a Low-Metallicity Environment
We reanalyze the mid-infrared (5-40 $μ$m) Spitzer spectra of 86 low-redshift ($z < 0.5$) Palomar-Green quasars to investigate the nature of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission and its utility as a star formation rate (SFR) indicator for the host galaxies of luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We decompose the spectra with our recently developed template-fitting technique to measure PAH fluxes and upper limits, which we interpret using mock spectra that simulate the effects of AGN dilution. While luminous quasars can severely dilute and affect the detectability of emission lines,…
Probing the Interstellar Medium of z~1 Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxies through Interferometric Observations of CO and Spitzer Mid-infrared Spectroscopy