1.1 Key Topics for the Debate

The SOC proposed the following four topics for the debate:

Most of > 1012 L ULIGs are predominantly powered by ? (heavily dust enshrouded AGN) or (circumnuclear starbursts) ULIGs follow a merger sequence from colliding disk galaxies with large bulges to ellipticals. ULIGs are precursors of QSOs.} ULIGs are local templates of the high luminosity tail of mergers at z = 1-4.

Much of the Green Tower discussion was devoted to Topic 1, which most participants had thought to be the main theme of the Workshop. Much of our time was spent focusing on the nearest and best studied ULIGs, and on comparing the observational evidence from across the electromagnetic spectrum for and against the presence of a dominant AGN. Topic 3 seemed to blend naturally with the discussion of Topic 1.

Discussion of Topic 2 drew heavily on several large optical and near-infrared imaging studies of complete samples of low-z IRAS galaxies, while Topic 4 relied on more recent studies of a limited number of high-z IRAS sources and sources recently identified in deep submillimeter images obtained with the Submillimeter Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA: Holland et al. 1999) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) on Mauna Kea.