Luminous Infrared Galaxies in the Local Universe
Abstract
We study the morphology and star formation properties of 159 local luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) using multi-color images from Data Release 2 (DR2) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The LIRGs are selected from a cross-correlation analysis between the IRAS survey and SDSS. They are all brighter than 15.9 mag in the r-band and below redshift ~ 0.1, and so can be reliably classified morphologically. We find that the fractions of interacting/merging and spiral galaxies are ~ 48% and ~ 40% respectively. Our results complement and confirm the decline (increase) in the fraction of spiral (interacting/merging) galaxies from z ~1 to z ~ 0.1, as found by Melbourne, Koo & Le Floc'h (2005). About 75% of spiral galaxies in the local LIRGs are barred, indicating that bars may play an important role in triggering star formation rates > 20 M_{sun}/yr in the local universe. Compared with high redshift LIRGs, local LIRGs have lower specific star formation rates, smaller cold gas fractions and a narrower range of stellar masses. Local LIRGs appear to be either merging galaxies forming intermediate mass ellipticals or spiral galaxies undergoing high star formation activities regulated by bars.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0603574,
title = {Luminous Infrared Galaxies in the Local Universe},
author = {J. L. Wang and X. Y. Xia and S. Mao and C. Cao and Hong Wu and Z. G. Deng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0603574},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
22 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, title changed, typos corrected,major revisions following referee's comments,updated references