AEGIS: Infrared Spectroscopy of An Infrared Luminous Lyman Break Galaxy at z=3.01

Abstract

We report the detection of rest--frame 6.2 and 7.7 \micron emission features arising from Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) in the Spitzer/IRS spectrum of an infrared-luminous Lyman break galaxy at z=3.01. This is currently the highest redshift galaxy where these PAH emission features have been detected. The total infrared luminosity inferred from the MIPS 24 \micron and radio flux density is 2$\times 10^{13}$ L${}_{\odot }$, which qualifies this object as a so--called hyperluminous infrared galaxy (HyLIRG). However, unlike local HyLIRGs which are generally associated with QSO/AGNs and have weak or absent PAH emission features, this HyLIRG has very strong 6.2 and 7.7 \micron PAH emission. We argue that intense star formation dominates the infrared emission of this source, although we cannot rule out the presence of a deeply obscured AGN. This LBG appears to be a distorted system in the HST ACS F606W and F814W images, possibly indicating that a significant merger or interaction is driving the large IR luminosity.

References in corpus (4)

• The All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) Data Sets
• Dust in starburst nuclei and ULIRGs: SED models for observers
• AEGIS20: a radio survey of the Extended Groth Strip
• Far-infrared characterization of an ultra-luminous starburst associated with a massively-accreting black hole at z=1.15

Cited by in corpus (12)

• The All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) Data Sets
• Evidence for a Population of High-Redshift Submillimeter Galaxies from Interferometric Imaging
• The Physical Scale of the Far-Infrared Emission in the Most Luminous Submillimeter Galaxies
• Spitzer Observations of the z=2.73 Lensed Lyman Break Galaxy, MS1512-cB58
• The properties of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in galaxies: constraints on PAH sizes, charge and radiation fields
• IRS Spectroscopy and Multi-wavelength Study of Luminous Star-forming Galaxies at z~1.9
• The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: the submillimetre properties of Lyman break galaxies at z=3-5
• AEGIS: A Panchromatic Study of IRAC-selected Extremely Red Objects with Confirmed Spectroscopic Redshifts
• The Deep Optical Imaging of the Extended Groth Strip
• Rest-Frame Ultraviolet to Near Infrared Observations of an Interacting Lyman Break Galaxy at z = 4.42
• A Complete 16 micron-Selected Galaxy Sample at $z\sim 1$: Mid-infrared Spectral Energy Distributions
• Spitzer View of Lyman Break Galaxies