The `Great Debate': The Case for AGNs

Abstract

We summarize the evidence from multiwavelength observations that the dominant power source in the majority of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) may be an active galactic nucleus (AGN). In the broader context of the debate, we also show that: 1. ULIGs are indeed a key stage in the transformation of merging gas-rich disks into ellipticals, 2. ULIGs are plausibly the precursors of quasi-stellar objects (QSOs), and 3. ULIGs do appear to be local templates of the high luminosity tail of major gas-rich mergers at z ~ 1-4.

LaTex, 18 pages with 4 embedded postscript figures and 3 tables. To appear in The Ringberg Workshop, `Ultraluminous Galaxies: Monsters or Babies' (Ringberg Castle, Sept, 1998), A&SS

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• Mergers, AGN, and 'Normal' Galaxies: Contributions to the Distribution of Star Formation Rates and Infrared Luminosity Functions
• A Chandra Survey of the Nearest ULIRGs: Obscured AGN or Super-Starbursts?
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• The Bolocam Lockman Hole Millimeter-Wave Galaxy Survey: Galaxy Candidates and Number Counts
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• Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies: Atlas of Near-Infrared Images
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• Global Star Formation Rates and Dust Emission Over the Galaxy Interaction Sequence
• Optical Properties of 4248 IRAS Galaxies
• Observations of Hyperluminous Infrared Galaxies with the Infrared Space Observatory: Implications for the origin of their extreme luminosities
• C-GOALS II. Chandra Observations of the Lower Luminosity Sample of Nearby Luminous Infrared Galaxies in GOALS
• Resolving the buried starburst in Arp299
• Obscured Activity: AGN, Quasars, Starbursts and ULIGs observed by the Infrared Space Observatory
• Unveiling The Sigma-Discrepancy II: Revisiting the Evolution of ULIRGs & The Origin of Quasars
• HI observations of luminous infrared galaxy mergers
• The Arp 220 merger on kpc scales
• The Nearby QSO Host I Zw 1: NIR Probing of Structural Properties and Stellar Populations
• Search for dense molecular gas in QSO hosts