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Keck Absorption-Line Spectroscopy of Galactic Winds in Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies

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David S. Rupke1,2, Sylvain Veilleux1,2,3 and D. B. Sanders2,4,5

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In this paper, we present moderately high resolution (~65 km s-1) spectroscopy, acquired with the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager on Keck II, of 11 ultraluminous infrared galaxies at z < 0.3 from the IRAS 1 Jy sample. The targets were chosen as good candidates to host galaxy-scale outflows, and most have infrared luminosities dominated by star formation. We use a χ2 minimization to fit one- to three-component profiles to the Na I D interstellar absorption doublet in each object. Assuming that gas blueshifted by more than 70 km s-1 relative to the systemic velocity of the host is outflowing, we detect outflows in 73% of these objects. We adopt a simple model of a mass-conserving free wind to infer mass outflow rates in the range dot Mtot(H) = 13-133 Msun yr-1 for galaxies hosting a wind. These values of dot Mtot, normalized to the corresponding global star formation rates inferred from infrared luminosities, are in the range η ≡ dot Mtot/SFR = 0.1-0.7. This is on average a factor of only 10 less than η from recent measurements of nearby dwarfs, edge-on spirals, and lower luminosity infrared galaxies. Within our sample, we conclude that η has no dependence on the mass of the host (parameterized by host galaxy kinematics and absolute R- and K'-band magnitudes). We also attempt to estimate the average escape fraction langfescrang ≡ ∑ dot Mimg3.gif/ ∑ dot Mimg4.gif and "ejection efficiency" langδrang ≡ ∑ dot Mimg3.gif/ ∑ SFRi for our sample, which we find to be ~0.4-0.5 and ~0.1, respectively. The complex absorption-line properties of Mrk 231, an ultraluminous infrared galaxy that is optically classified as a Seyfert 1, are discussed separately in an appendix.


Subject headings

galaxies: active; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: starburst; ISM: jets and outflows; ISM: kinematics and dynamics


Dates

Issue 2 (2002 May 10)

Received 2001 September 24, accepted for publication 2002 January 22



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