| Issue |
A&A
Volume 379, Number 3, December I 2001
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 823 - 844 | |
| Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20011377 | |
| Published online | 15 December 2001 | |
Infrared to millimetre photometry of ultra-luminous IR galaxies : New evidence favouring a 3-stage dust model *,**
1
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA), Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
2
Astronomisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
3
ISO Data Centre, Astrophysics Division, Space Science Dep. of ESA, Villafranca, PO Box 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain
4
Joint Astronomy Centre, 660 N. Aohuku Place, University Park, Hilo 96720, Hawaii, USA
Corresponding author: U. Klaas, klaas@mpia.de
Received:
22
December
2000
Accepted:
24
September
2001
Infrared to millimetre spectral energy distributions (SEDs) have been obtained for
41 bright ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). The observations were carried out with ISOPHOT
between 10 and 200 μm and supplemented for 16 sources with JCMT/SCUBA at 450 and 850 μm and
with SEST at 1.3 mm. In addition, seven sources were observed at 1.2 and 2.2 μm with the 2.2 m
telescope on Calar Alto. These new SEDs represent the most complete set of infrared photometric templates
obtained so far on ULIRGs in the local universe.
The SEDs peak at 60-100 μm and show often a quite shallow Rayleigh-Jeans tail. Fits with one single
modified blackbody yield a high FIR opacity and small dust emissivity exponent 
. However,
this concept leads to conflicts with several other observational constraints, like the low PAH extinction
or the extended filamentary optical morphology. A more consistent picture is obtained using several dust
components with 
, low to moderate FIR opacity and cool (50 K 
K) to cold
(30 K 
K) temperatures. This provides evidence for two dust stages, the cool starburst
dominated one and the cold cirrus-like one. The third stage with several hundred Kelvin warm dust is
identified in the AGN dominated ULIRGs, showing up as a NIR-MIR power-law flux increase. While AGNs and SBs
appear indistinguishable at FIR and submm wavelengths, they differ in the NIR-MIR. This suggests that the
cool FIR emitting dust is not related to the AGN, and that the AGN only powers the warm and hot dust.
In comparison with optical and MIR spectroscopy, a criterion based on the SED shapes and the NIR colours is
established to reveal AGNs among ULIRGs. Also the possibility of recognising evolutionary trends among the
ULIRGs via the relative amounts of cold, cool and warm dust components is investigated.
Key words: infrared: galaxies / galaxies: active / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: fundamental parameters / galaxies: photometry / galaxies: starburst
Based on observations with the Infrared Space Observatory ISO, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope JCMT, the Swedish ESO Submillimetre Telescope SEST and at the Calar Alto Observatory. ISO is an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA Member States (especially the PI countries France, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA.
© ESO, 2001
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