A new look at local ultraluminous infrared galaxies: the atlas and radiative transfer models of their complex physics

Efstathiou, A.; Farrah, D.; Afonso, J.; Clements, D. L.; González-Alfonso, E.; Lacy, Mark; Oliver, Seb; Lesta, Vicky Papadopoulou; Pearson, Chris; Rigopoulou, D.; Rowan-Robinson, M.; Spoon, H. W. W.; Verma, Aprajita; Wang, L

doi:10.1093/mnras/stab3642

Cited by 13 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 134 publications

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“…6 and Table 4, respectively. We note that the modelling presented here for ESO 286-IG019 includes a polar dust component, in contrast to that presented in Efstathiou et al (2022), in order to provide consistency across the modelling of our sample. Fig.…”

Section: Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Of Host Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…The model also self-consistently takes into account absorption of emission from the hot inner torus by dust in the cooler outer parts of the torus depending on the inclination. As discussed in Efstathiou (2006) and Efstathiou et al (2022), an anisotropy correction factor needs to be applied to the 'observed' AGN luminosity to account for the anisotropic emission of the torus, which is a general feature of all currently used torus models. The model of Efstathiou & Rowan-Robinson (1995) treats the AGN disc as a tapered one, where the height of the disc increases with distance from the BH, but tapers off to a constant height in its outer part.…”

Section: Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Of Host Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The data fitted in the case of IRAS 05189−2524 and ESO 286-IG019 are part of the compilation of multi-wavelength SEDs of the HERschel Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxy Survey (HERUS) sample of galaxies presented by (Efstathiou et al 2022). The data for AM 0702-601N were assembled from publicly available archives such as CASSIS (Lebouteiller et al 2011) and NED.…”

Section: Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Of Host Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energetic nuclear transients in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies

Reynolds

Mattila

Kankare

et al. 2022

A&A

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Energetic nuclear outbursts have been discovered in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) at unexpectedly high rates. To investigate this population of transients, we performed a search in mid-IR data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite and its NEOWISE survey to detect and characterise luminous and smoothly evolving transients in a sample of 215 U/LIRGs. We report three new transients, all with ∆L > 10 43 erg s −1 , in addition to two previously known cases. Their host galaxies are all part of major galaxy mergers, and through radiative transfer model fitting we find that all have a significant contribution from an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We characterised the transients through measurements of their luminosities and resulting energetics, all of which are between 10 50.9 erg and 10 52.2 erg. The IR emission of the five transients was found to be consistent with re-radiation by the hot dust of emission at shorter wavelengths, presumably originating from an accretion event, onto the supermassive black hole. The corresponding transient rate of (1.6-4.6)×10 −3 / yr / galaxy is over an order of magnitude higher than the rate of large amplitude flares shown by AGN in the optical. We suggest that the observed transients are part of a dust-obscured population of tidal disruption events (TDEs) that have remained out of the reach of optical surveys due to the obscuring dust. In one case, this is supported by our radio observations. We also discuss other plausible explanations. The observed rate of events is significantly higher than optical TDE rates, which can be expected in U/LIRG hosts undergoing a major galaxy merger with increased stellar densities in the nuclear regions. Continued searches for such transients and their multi-wavelength follow-up is required to constrain their rate and nature.

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Section: Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Of Host Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Of Host Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting Of Host Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Energetic nuclear transients in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies

Reynolds

Mattila

Kankare

et al. 2022

A&A

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“…Rigopoulou et al 2002;Alonso-Herrero et al 2014, 2020. Recently, Efstathiou et al (2021) modelled the IR emission of local ULIRGs using the HERUS sample and found that the spheroidal host galaxy component significantly contributes to their PAH emission. The same result has also been found for LIRGs (Herrero-Illana et al 2017).…”

Section: The Mid-infrared Emission Of Highly Obscured Dusty Galaxiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Fig. 9 we compare the observed continuum ratios (12.7/11.3 µm vs 6.2/11.3 µm) with those obtained from the CYGNUS smooth torus models by Efstathiou & Rowan-Robinson (1995) & Efstathiou et al (2021. We use the same continuum ratios (i.e.…”

Section: Prospects For Identifying Compact Obscured Nuclei With the J...mentioning

confidence: 99%

A technique to select the most obscured galaxy nuclei

García-Bernete,

Rigopoulou,

Aalto

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Compact obscured nuclei (CONs) are mainly found in local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs). In the local Universe, these sources are generally selected through the detection of the HCN-vib (3-2) emission line at submillimetre wavelengths. In this work, we present a diagnostic method to select deeply buried nuclei based on mid-infrared (mid-IR) polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and mid-IR continuum ratios. Using Spitzer InfraRed Spectrograph spectra of a representative sample of local ULIRGs (z<0.27), we examine their PAH and underlying continuum emission ratios. For deeply embedded sources, we find that the 9.7 µm silicate absorption band has a particularly pronounced effect on the 11.3 µm PAH feature. The low flux level in the nuclear silicate absorption band enhances the 11.3 µm PAH feature contrast (high PAH equivalent width) compared to that of the other PAH features. The technique has been extended to include the use of the underlying 11.3/12.7 and 11.3/6.2 µm continuum ratios. However, the latter are affected both by the extinction coming from the host galaxy as well as the nuclear region, whereas the foreground (host-galaxy) extinction is cancelled out when using the PAH EW ratios. We apply our method to local U/LIRGs from the HERUS and GOALS samples and classify as CON candidates 14 ULIRGs and 10 LIRGs, corresponding to 30% of ULIRGs and 7% of LIRGs from these samples. We find that the observed continuum ratios of CON-dominated sources can be explained by assuming torus models with a tapered disk geometry and a smooth dust distribution. This suggests that the nuclear dusty structure of deeply obscured galaxy nuclei has an extremely high dust coverage. Finally, we demonstrate that the use of mid-IR color-color diagrams is an effective way to select CON-dominated sources at different redshifts. In particular, the combination of filters of the James Webb Space Telescope/Mid-Infrared Instrument will enable the selection of CONs out to z∼1.5. This will allow extending the selection of CONs to high redshifts where U/LIRGs are more numerous.

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The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS)

García‐Burillo

Alonso‐Herrero

Almeida

et al. 2021

A&A

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We present the first results of the Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS), a project aimed at understanding the properties of the dusty molecular tori and their connection to the host galaxy in nearby Seyfert galaxies. Our project expands the range of active galactic nuclei (AGN) luminosities and Eddington ratios covered by previous surveys of Seyferts conducted by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), allowing us to study the gas feeding and feedback cycle in a combined sample of 19 Seyferts. We used ALMA to obtain new images of the emission of molecular gas and dust using the CO(3–2) and HCO+(4–3) lines as well as their underlying continuum emission at 870 μm with high spatial resolutions (0.1″ ∼ 7 − 13 pc) in the circumnuclear disks (CND) of ten nearby (D < 28 Mpc) Seyfert galaxies selected from an ultra-hard X-ray survey. Our new ALMA observations detect 870 μm continuum and CO line emission from spatially resolved disks located around the AGN in all the sources. The bulk of the 870 μm continuum flux can be accounted for by thermal emission from dust in the majority of the targets. For most of the sources, the disks show a preponderant orientation perpendicular to the AGN wind axes, as expected for dusty molecular tori. The median diameters and molecular gas masses of the tori are ∼42 pc and ∼6 × 105 M⊙, respectively. We also detected the emission of the 4–3 line of HCO+ in four GATOS targets. The order of magnitude differences found in the CO/HCO+ ratios within our combined sample point to a very different density radial stratification inside the dusty molecular tori of these Seyferts. We find a positive correlation between the line-of-sight gas column densities responsible for the absorption of X-rays and the molecular gas column densities derived from CO toward the AGN in our sources. Furthermore, the median values of both column densities are similar. This suggests that the neutral gas line-of-sight column densities of the dusty molecular tori imaged by ALMA significantly contribute to the obscuration of X-rays. The radial distributions of molecular gas in the CND of our combined sample show signs of nuclear-scale molecular gas deficits. We also detect molecular outflows in the sources that show the most extreme nuclear-scale gas deficits in our sample. These observations find for the first time supporting evidence that the imprint of AGN feedback is more extreme in higher luminosity and/or higher Eddington ratio Seyfert galaxies.

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A new look at local ultraluminous infrared galaxies: the atlas and radiative transfer models of their complex physics

Cited by 13 publications

References 134 publications

Energetic nuclear transients in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies

Energetic nuclear transients in luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies

A technique to select the most obscured galaxy nuclei

The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS)

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