The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

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The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series Volume 178 Number 2 Create an alert RSS this journal

Christine D. Wilson et al. 2008 ApJS 178 189 doi:10.1086/590910

Luminous Infrared Galaxies with the Submillimeter Array. I. Survey Overview and the Central Gas to Dust Ratio

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Christine D. Wilson1,2, Glen R. Petitpas2, Daisuke Iono2,3, Andrew J. Baker4, Alison B. Peck2,5, Melanie Krips2, Bradley Warren1, Jennifer Golding1, Adam Atkinson1, Lee Armus6, T. J. Cox2, Paul Ho2,7, Mika Juvela8, Satoki Matsushita7, J. Christopher Mihos9, Ylva Pihlstrom10 and Min S. Yun11

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Abstract References Cited By
We present new data obtained with the Submillimeter Array for a sample of 14 nearby luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The galaxies were selected to have distances DL < 200 Mpc and far-infrared luminosities log LFIR > 11.4. The galaxies were observed with spatial resolutions of order 1 kpc in the CO J = 3–2, CO J = 2–1,13CO J = 2–1, and HCO+ J = 4–3 lines as well as the continuum at 880 μm and 1.3 mm. We have combined our CO and continuum data to measure an average gas-to-dust mass ratio of 120 ± 28 (rms deviation 109) in the central regions of these galaxies, very similar to the value of 150 determined for the Milky Way. This similarity is interesting given the more intense heating from the starburst and possibly accretion activity in the luminous infrared galaxies compared to the Milky Way. We find that the peak H2 surface density correlates with the far-infrared luminosity, which suggests that galaxies with higher gas surface densities inside the central kiloparsec have a higher star formation rate. The lack of a significant correlation between total H2 mass and far-infrared luminosity in our sample suggests that the increased star formation rate is due to the increased availability of molecular gas as fuel for star formation in the central regions. In contrast to previous analyses by other authors, we do not find a significant correlation between central gas surface density and the star formation efficiency, as traced by the ratio of far-infrared luminosity to nuclear gas mass. Our data show that it is the star formation rate, not the star formation efficiency, that increases with increasing central gas surface density in these galaxies.

Subject headings

galaxies: individual (Arp 55, Arp 193, Arp 299, IRAS 10565+2448, IRAS 17208–0014, Mrk 231, Mrk 273, NGC 1614, NGC 2623, NGC 5331, NGC 5257, NGC 5258, NGC 6240, UGC 5101, VV 114); infrared: galaxies


Dates

Issue 2 (2008 October)

Received 2008 March 20, accepted for publication 2008 June 7



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