Star formation and AGN activity in a sample of local Luminous Infrared Galaxies through multi-wavelength characterization

Abstract

Nuclear starbursts and AGN activity are the main heating processes in luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) and their relationship is fundamental to understand galaxy evolution. In this paper, we study the star-formation and AGN activity of a sample of 11 local LIRGs imaged with subarcsecond angular resolution at radio (8.4GHz) and near-infrared ($2.2\mu$m) wavelengths. This allows us to characterize the central kpc of these galaxies with a spatial resolution of $\simeq 100$pc. In general, we find a good spatial correlation between the radio and the near-IR emission, although radio emission tends to be more concentrated in the nuclear regions. Additionally, we use an MCMC code to model their multi-wavelength spectral energy distribution (SED) using template libraries of starburst, AGN and spheroidal/cirrus models, determining the luminosity contribution of each component, and finding that all sources in our sample are starburst-dominated, except for NGC6926 with an AGN contribution of $\simeq 64$\%. Our sources show high star formation rates ($40$ to $167M_{\odot }{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$), supernova rates (0.4 to $2.0\mathrm{SN}{\mathrm{yr}}^{-1}$), and similar starburst ages (13 to $29\mathrm{Myr}$), except for the young starburst (9Myr) in NGC6926. A comparison of our derived star-forming parameters with estimates obtained from different IR and radio tracers shows an overall consistency among the different star formation tracers. AGN tracers based on mid-IR, high-ionization line ratios also show an overall agreement with our SED model fit estimates for the AGN. Finally, we use our wide-band VLA observations to determine pixel-by-pixel radio spectral indices for all galaxies in our sample, finding a typical median value ($\alpha \simeq -0.8$) for synchrotron-powered LIRGs.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 20 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (24)

• Radio sources in the 6dFGS: Local luminosity functions at 1.4 GHz for star-forming galaxies and radio-loud AGN
• Spitzer Quasar and ULIRG Evolution Study (QUEST): II. The Spectral Energy Distributions of Palomar-Green Quasars
• High resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy of ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• GOODS-HERSCHEL: star formation, dust attenuation and the FIR-radio correlation on the Main Sequence of star-forming galaxies up to z~4
• Core-collapse supernovae missed by optical surveys
• AGNfitter: A Bayesian MCMC approach to fitting spectral energy distributions of AGN
• Spitzer/IRS 5-35 um Low-Resolution Spectroscopy of the 12 um Seyfert Sample
• Nuclear 11.3$\mu$m PAH emission in local active galactic nuclei
• Morphology and Molecular Gas Fractions of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies as a Function of Infrared Luminosity and Merger Stage
• High-resolution radio continuum survey of M33 II. Thermal and nonthermal emission
• Mid-Infrared Properties of Luminous Infrared Galaxies II: Probing the Dust and Gas Physics of the GOALS Sample
• Modelling the spectral energy distribution of ULIRGs II: The energetic environment and the dense interstellar medium
• NuSTAR observations of water megamaser AGN
• [Ne V] Emission in Optically Classified Starbursts
• Synchrotron spectral index and interstellar medium densities of star-forming galaxies
• Warm Molecular Gas in Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• Discovery of a very highly extinguished supernova in a luminous infrared galaxy
• A model for the infrared emission of FSC 10214+4724
• The nature of supernovae 2010O and 2010P in Arp 299 - II. Radio emission
• Probing the Circumnuclear Stellar Populations of Starburst Galaxies in the Near-infrared
• Radio Detection of Supernova 2004ip in the Circumnuclear Region of the Luminous Infrared Galaxy IRAS 18293-3413
• A multi-wavelength view of the central kiloparsec region in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy NGC1614
• Unveiling the AGN in IC 883: discovery of a parsec-scale radio jet
• Reconstructing Merger Timelines Using Star Cluster Age Distributions: the Case of MCG+08-11-002

Cited by in corpus (24)

• LeMMINGs. I. The eMERLIN legacy survey of nearby galaxies. 1.5-GHz parsec-scale radio structures and cores
• On the Gas Content and Efficiency of AGN Feedback in Low-redshift Quasars
• Star formation and nuclear activity in luminous infrared galaxies: An infrared through radio review
• Investigating kpc-scale radio emission properties of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies
• AT 2017gbl: a dust obscured TDE candidate in a luminous infrared galaxy
• LeMMINGs. II. The e-MERLIN legacy survey of nearby galaxies. The deepest radio view of the Palomar sample on parsec scale
• A new look at local ultraluminous infrared galaxies: the atlas and radiative transfer models of their complex physics
• First results from GeMS/GSAOI for project SUNBIRD: Supernovae UNmasked By Infra-Red Detection
• Stellar and black hole assembly in z<0.3 infrared-luminous mergers: intermittent starbursts vs. super-Eddington accretion
• Young massive clusters in the interacting LIRG Arp 299: evidence for the dependence of star cluster formation and evolution on environment
• Characterizing Compact 15-33 GHz Radio Continuum Sources in Local U/LIRGs
• Spatial metallicity distribution statistics at $\lesssim 100$ pc scales in the AMUSING++ nearby galaxy sample
• A hyperluminous obscured quasar at a redshift of z ~ 4.3
• Core-collapse supernova subtypes in luminous infrared galaxies
• Subarcsecond LOFAR imaging of Arp299 at 150 MHz. Tracing the nuclear and diffuse extended emission of a bright LIRG
• Low frequency radio continuum imaging and SED modeling of 11 LIRGs: radio-only and FUV to radio bands
• Dense Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Infrared Bright Galaxies: APEX survey of HCN and HCO+ J=2-1
• SMART: spectral energy distributions Markov chain analysis with radiative transfer models
• JWST reveals the diversity of nuclear obscuring dust in nearby AGN: nuclear isolation of MIRI/MRS datacubes and continuum spectral fitting
• The radio properties of the OH megamaser galaxy IRAS 02524+2046
• A comparative study of galaxy evolution with four different active galactic nucleus torus models and two different host geometries
• Reconstructing the mid-infrared spectra of galaxies using ultraviolet to submillimeter photometry and Deep Generative Networks
• The Nature of Hyperluminous Infrared Galaxies
• A technique to select the most obscured galaxy nuclei