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Herschel observations of far-infrared cooling lines in intermediate redshift (ultra)-luminous infrared galaxies

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posted on 2023-06-08, 21:01 authored by D Rigopoulou, R Hopwood, G E Magdis, N Thatte, B M Swinyard, D Farrah, J-S Huang, A Alonso-Herrero, J J Bock, D Clements, A Cooray, M J Griffin, Seb OliverSeb Oliver, C Pearson, D Riechers, D Scott, A Smith, M Vaccari, I Valtchanov, L Wang
We report the first results from a spectroscopic survey of the [Cii] 158 µm line from a sample of intermediate redshift (0.2 < z < 0.8) (ultra)-luminous infrared galaxies, (U)LIRGs (L IR > 10 11.5 L ? ), using the Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver–Fourier Transform Spectrometer on board the Herschel Space Observatory. This is the first survey of [Cii] emission, an important tracer of star formation, at a redshift range where the star formation rate density of the universe increases rapidly. We detect strong [Cii] 158 µm line emission from over 80% of the sample. We find that the [Cii] line is luminous, in the range (0.8–4) × 10 -3 of the far-infrared continuum luminosity of our sources, and appears to arise from photo dissociation regions on the surface of molecular clouds. The L [Cii] /L IR ratio in our intermediate redshift (U)LIRGs is on average ~ 10 times larger than that of local ULIRGs. Furthermore, we find that the L [Cii] /L IR and L [Cii] /L CO(1 – 0) ratios in our sample are similar to those of local normal galaxies and high-z star-forming galaxies. ULIRGs at z ~ 0.5 show many similarities to the properties of local normal and high-z star-forming galaxies. Our findings strongly suggest that rapid evolution in the properties of the star-forming regions of (U)LIRGs is likely to have occurred in the last 5 billion years.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

ISSN

2041-8205

Publisher

American Astronomical Society

Issue

1

Volume

781

Page range

L15

Department affiliated with

  • Physics and Astronomy Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-06-08

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2015-06-08

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-06-08

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