English

The Hosts of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies

Astrophysics 2009-09-25 v2

Abstract

Complete samples of ultraluminous infrared galaxies have been imaged at R-band and K-band from Mauna Kea. Here we present a preliminary analysis of the host galaxy magnitudes and the 1-D radial profiles for a subset of objects in the IRAS 1-Jy sample of ULIGs (z < 0.3), and compare these properties with recently published data for "low-z" QSOs. ULIGs in the 1-Jy sample reside in luminous hosts, with mean luminosities 2.7L* at K-band (range 0.7-11 L*) and 2.2L* at R-band (range 0.5-9 L*), values that are remarkably similar in the mean and range for the hosts of low-z QSOs. Approximately one-third of ULIGs have single nuclei and radial profiles that are closely approximated by a r{1/4}-law over the inner 2-10 kpc galactocentric radius. These "E-like" hosts have half-light radii, and surface brightness similar to QSO hosts at R-band, but systematically smaller half-light radii than QSOs at K-band.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9911391,
  title  = {The Hosts of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies},
  author = {D. B. Sanders and D. -C. Kim and J. M. Mazzarella and J. A. Surace and J. B. Jensen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9911391},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

LaTex, 6 pages with 2 embedded postscript figures and updated references; submitted to the XVth IAP Meeting "Galaxy Dynamics: from the Early Universe to the Present", Paris, France, 9-13 July, 1999