The AGN content of ultraluminous IR galaxies: High resolution VLA imaging of the IRAS 1 Jy ULIRG sample^*

¹ Arcetri Observatory, Largo E. Fermi 5, Florence 50125, Italy e-mail: neil@arcetri.astro.it,maiolino@arcetri.astro.it
² Kapteyn Institute, University of Groningen, Landleven 12, 9747 AD Groningen, The Netherlands e-mail: nagar@astro.rug.nl
³ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA e-mail: wilson@astro.umd.edu, veilleux@astro.umd.edu
⁴ Adjunct Astronomer, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
⁵ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany e-mail: hfalcke@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
⁶ Current address: 320-47 Downs Lab., Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125 and Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA e-mail: veilleux@ulirg.caltech.edu

Corresponding author: N. M. Nagar, nagar@astro.rug.nl

Received: 17 April 2003
Accepted: 7 July 2003

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a high resolution radio imaging survey of 83 of the 118 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) in the IRAS 1 Jy ULIRG sample. We have observed these ULIRGs at 15 GHz with the Very Large Array (VLA). We find that ~75% of Seyferts (both type 1 and 2) and LINERs have radio nuclei which are compact at our 150 mas resolution. The detection rate of  nuclei is significantly lower (32%); the detections among these are preferentially  + LINER/Seyfert composite nuclei. Among ULIRGs with multiple optical or near-IR nuclei our observations detected only one (or no) nucleus; in these the radio detection is typically towards the brightest near-IR nucleus. The compactness of the radio sources, the higher detection rates in AGN-type nuclei than  nuclei, the preferential detection of nuclei with unresolved point sources in the near-IR, the low soft X-ray to nuclear radio luminosity ratio (arguing against thermal emission powering the radio nuclei), and the lack of correlation between radio power and Hα luminosity, all support an origin of the detected radio nuclei in AGN related activity. This result is especially interesting for LINER ULIRGs for which signatures of AGNs have often been ambiguous in other wavebands. Such a high incidence of AGN would provide, for the first time, a large sample in which to study the interplay between AGN, starbursts, and galaxy mergers.