Regulating Star Formation in Nearby Dusty Galaxies: Low Photoelectric Efficiencies in the Most Compact Systems

Abstract

Star formation in galaxies is regulated by the heating and cooling in the interstellar medium. In particular, the processing of molecular gas into stars will depend strongly on the ratio of gas heating to gas cooling in the neutral gas around sites of recent star-formation. In this work, we combine mid-infrared (mid-IR) observations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), the dominant heating mechanism of gas in the interstellar medium (ISM), with [C II], [O I], and [Si II] fine-structure emission, the strongest cooling channels in dense, neutral gas. The ratio of IR cooling line emission to PAH emission measures the photoelectric efficiency, a property of the ISM which dictates how much energy carried by ultraviolet photons gets transferred into the gas. We find that star-forming, IR luminous galaxies in the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) with high IR surface densities have low photoelectric efficiencies. These systems also have, on average, higher ratios of radiation field strength to gas densities, and larger average dust grain size distributions. The data support a scenario in which the most compact galaxies have more young star-forming regions per unit area, which exhibit less efficient gas heating. These conditions may be more common at high-z, and may help explain the higher star-formation rates at cosmic noon. We make predictions on how this can be investigated with JWST.

arXiv comment17 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (82)

• Cosmic Star Formation History
• High Redshift Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field. Color Selection and Star Formation History to z=4
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: I. Galaxy Mergers & Quasar Activity
• Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. II. The Diffuse Interstellar Medium
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• The Neutral Atomic Phases of the ISM in the Galaxy
• The CANADA-FRANCE REDSHIFT SURVEY XIII: The luminosity density and star-formation history of the Universe to z ~ 1
• High molecular gas fractions in normal massive star forming galaxies in the young Universe
• The Mid-Infrared Spectrum of Star-Forming Galaxies: Global Properties of PAH Emission
• PHIBSS: molecular gas content and scaling relations in z~1-3 normal star forming galaxies
• Structure of Stationary Photodissociation Fronts
• Submillimeter Galaxies at z~2: Evidence for Major Mergers & Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF and CO-H2 Conversion Factor
• Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. I. Stochastic Heating of Small Grains
• Far Infrared and Submillimeter Emission from Galactic and Extragalactic Photo-Dissociation Regions
• PHIBSS: Unified Scaling Relations of Gas Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions
• Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass
• The Evolution of Galaxy Structure over Cosmic Time
• The applicability of FIR fine-structure lines as Star Formation Rate tracers over wide ranges of metallicities and galaxy types
• Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging
• PAHs as a tracer of star formation?
• Far Infrared Spectroscopy of Normal Galaxies: Physical Conditions in the Interstellar Medium
• GOALS: The Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey
• Mid-Infrared Spectral Diagnosis of Submillimeter Galaxies
• A 158 Micron [CII] Line Survey of Galaxies at z ~ 1 to 2: An Indicator of Star Formation in the Early Universe
• Evolution of Interstellar Medium, Star Formation, and Accretion at High Redshift
• Variations of the Mid-IR Aromatic Features Inside and Among Galaxies
• The Anatomy of Star Formation in NGC 300
• A Herschel/PACS Far Infrared Line Emission Survey of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• Validation of the equilibrium model for galaxy evolution to z~3 through molecular gas and dust observations of lensed star-forming galaxies
• Explaining the [CII]158um Deficit in Luminous Infrared Galaxies - First Results from a Herschel/PACS Study of the GOALS Sample
• A Compendium of Far-Infrared Line and Continuum Emission for 227 Galaxies Observed by the Infrared Space Observatory
• The Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey: I. Properties of the low-metallicity ISM from PACS spectroscopy
• The [CII] 158 um Line Deficit in Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies Revisited
• COSMOS-DASH: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Relation Since z~3 from new Wide Field WFC3 Imaging Combined with CANDELS/3DHST
• Far-Infrared Line Deficits in Galaxies with Extreme Lfir/MH2 Ratios
• Mid-Infrared Properties of Nearby Luminous Infrared Galaxies I: Spitzer IRS Spectra for the GOALS Sample
• The Herschel Comprehensive (U)LIRG Emission Survey (HerCULES): CO Ladders, fine structure lines, and neutral gas cooling
• Mid-Infrared Spectral Diagnostics of Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• The ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the HUDF: CO luminosity functions and the molecular gas content of galaxies through cosmic history
• An Accounting of the Dust-Obscured Star Formation and Accretion Histories Over the Last ~11~Billion Years
• The Spitzer Spectroscopic Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud (S4MC): Probing the Physical State of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in a Low-Metallicity Environment
• Mid-Infrared Atomic Fine-Structure Emission Line Spectra of Luminous Infrared Galaxies: Spitzer/IRS Spectra of the GOALS Sample
• Mapping PAH sizes in NGC 7023 with SOFIA
• The Spatially Resolved [CII] Cooling Line Deficit in Galaxies
• The Origins of [CII] Emission in Local Star-forming Galaxies
• ALMA Resolves the Nuclear Disks of Arp 220
• High-resolution CO and radio imaging of z~2 ULIRGs: extended CO structures, and implications for the universal star formation law
• The Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey: II. Physical conditions, origin of [CII] emission, and porosity of the multiphase low-metallicity ISM
• Resolving the Far-IR Line Deficit: Photoelectric Heating and Far-IR Line Cooling in NGC 1097 and NGC 4559
• [CII] absorption and emission in the diffuse interstellar medium across the Galactic Plane
• Mid-Infrared Properties of Luminous Infrared Galaxies II: Probing the Dust and Gas Physics of the GOALS Sample
• Probing the size and charge of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
• Modeling Dust and Starlight in Galaxies Observed by Spitzer and Herschel: The KINGFISH Sample
• Mid-Infrared Observations of Normal Star-Forming Galaxies: The Infrared Space Observatory Key Project Sample
• Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies. I. Spatially resolved observations with Spitzer/IRS
• Decomposing Dusty Galaxies. I. Multi-Component Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting
• Extended [CII] Emission in Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• Physical conditions in the gas phases of the giant HII region LMC-N11 unveiled by Herschel - I. Diffuse [CII] and [OIII] emission in LMC-N11B
• Strong C+ emission in galaxies at z~1-2: Evidence for cold flow accretion powered star formation in the early Universe
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Galaxies at z~0.1: the Effect of Star Formation and AGN
• A Hard X-ray Test of HCN Enhancements as a Tracer of Embedded Black Hole Growth
• The Spatial Extent of (U)LIRGs in the Mid-Infrared. II. Feature Emission
• Infrared Luminosities and Aromatic Features in the 24um Flux Limited Sample of 5MUSES
• A Herschel Survey of the [N II] 205 micron Line in Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies --- The [N II] 205 micron Emission as a Star Formation Rate Indicator
• A milestone toward understanding PDR properties in the extreme environment of LMC-30Dor
• The Orion HII Region and the Orion Bar in the Mid-Infrared
• A High Spatial Resolution Mid-Infrared Spectroscopic Study of the Nuclei and Star-Forming Regions in Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• [C II] emission from galactic nuclei in the presence of X-rays
• Probing the role of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the photoelectric heating within photodissociation regions
• Observations of the Near- to Mid-Infrared Unidentified Emission Bands in the Interstellar Medium of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Probing the Interstellar Medium of z~1 Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxies through Interferometric Observations of CO and Spitzer Mid-infrared Spectroscopy
• A Study of Heating and Cooling of the ISM in NGC 1097 with Herschel-PACS and Spitzer-IRS
• The [CII] Deficit in LIRGs and ULIRGs is Due to High-Temperature Saturation
• The AKARI 2.5-5 Micron Spectra of Luminous Infrared Galaxies in the Local Universe
• Using [CII] 158 micron Emission From Isolated ISM Phases as a Star-Formation Rate Indicator
• A multi-wavelength exploration of the [CII]/IR ratio in H-ATLAS/GAMA galaxies out to z=0.2
• Kinematics and properties of the Central Molecular Zone as probed with [C II]
• Spitzer Spectroscopy of Infrared-Luminous Galaxies: Diagnostics of AGN and Star Formation and Contribution to Total Infrared Luminosity
• SOFIA/FIFI-LS Full-disk [CII] Mapping and CO-dark Molecular Gas across the Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 6946
• Measuring the Heating and Cooling of the Interstellar Medium at High redshift: PAH and [C II] Observations of the Same Star Forming Galaxies at z~2
• The spatially-resolved correlation between [NII] 205 μm line emission and the 24 μm continuum in nearby galaxies
• Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies: Spatially resolved mid-infrared observations with Spitzer/IRS

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Seyfert and star-forming galaxies
• High [OIII]/[CII] surface brightness ratios trace early starburst galaxies
• Contribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon ionization to neutral gas heating in galaxies: model versus observations
• The ALMA-CRISTAL survey: Dust temperature and physical conditions of the interstellar medium in a typical galaxy at z=5.66
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Size Tracers
• The Calibration of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Dust Emission as a Star Formation Rate Indicator in the AKARI NEP Survey