![]() | Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 1996. 34:
749-792 Copyright © 1996 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved |
A more complete description of the properties of infrared galaxies became possible only after the determination of redshifts for relatively large unbiased samples of infrared selected objects. Table 2 lists the major published redshift catalogs for IRAS galaxies [Saunders et al. (1990) provides a good reference for IRAS galaxy surveys prior to 1990].
Name | Flux limit(s) | Area | Sources a | Reference b | ||||||||||
all sky c | ||||||||||||||
RBGS | f60 ![]() | |b| > 5° | 602 P | Sanders et al. 1996a | ||||||||||
1.2 Jy Survey | f60 ![]() | |b| > 10° | 5321 P | Fisher et al. 1995 | ||||||||||
1 Jy ULIGs | f60 ![]() | |b| > 30° | 115 F | Kim & Sanders 1996 | ||||||||||
QDOT | f60 ![]() | |b| > 10° | 2387 F | Lawrence et al. 1996 | ||||||||||
12 µm Survey | f12 ![]() | |b| > 25° | 893 F | Rush et al. 1993 | ||||||||||
small area | ||||||||||||||
2 Jy Survey & | f60 ![]() | 1072 deg2 | 70 P | Smith et al. 1987 | ||||||||||
Bootes Void | f60 ![]() | 1423 deg2 | 379 P | Strauss & Huchra 1988 | ||||||||||
KOS-KOSS | f60 ![]() | 142 deg2 | 63 P | Vader & Simon 1987b | ||||||||||
NGW | f60 ![]() | 844 deg2 | 389 P | Lawrence et al. 1986 | ||||||||||
FSS-z | f60 ![]() | 1310 deg2 | ~ 3600 F | Oliver et al. 1996 | ||||||||||
Pointed Obs | f60 ![]() | 18 deg2 | 66 A | Lonsdale & Hacking 1989 | ||||||||||
NEPR | f60 ![]() | 6 deg2 | 76 D | Ashby et al. 1996 | ||||||||||
color selected | ||||||||||||||
AGN Candidates | 1 > f25 / f60 > 0.27 | |b| > 20° | 563 P | de Grijp et al. 1992 | ||||||||||
WEO | 3 > f25 / f60 > 0.25 | |b| > 30° | 187 P | Low et al. 1988 | ||||||||||
Tepid FIRGs | f25 / f60 < 0.27 | 53 P | Armus et al. 1989 | |||||||||||
f60 / f100 > 0.78 | ||||||||||||||
60 µm Peakers | 1 > f25 / f60 > 0.25 | |b| > 10° | 51 P | Vader et al. 1993 | ||||||||||
f60 / f100 > 1 | ||||||||||||||
a IRAS Catalogs: (P) PSC (1988), (F)
FSC (Moshir et
al. 1992), (A) Pointed Observations
(Young et
al. 1986), (D)
b References for earlier versions of surveys:
| c 1 Jy ULIGs - |b| > 30° and
| ![]() ![]() |
3.1 Luminosity Functions
A comparison of the luminosity function of infrared bright galaxies with
other classes of extragalactic objects is shown in
Figure 1. At luminosities
below 1011 L, IRAS observations confirm that the
majority of optically selected objects are relatively weak far-infrared
emitters
(Bothun et
al. 1989,
Knapp et al. 1989,
Devereux & Young
1991,
Isobe & Feigelson
1992). Surveys of Markarian galaxies
(Deutsch & Willner
1986,
Mazzarella &
Balzano 1986,
Mazzarella et
al. 1991,
Bicay et al. 1995)
confirm that both Markarian starbursts and Seyferts have properties (e.g.
f60/f100
and Lir / LB ratios) closer to
infrared selected samples as does the subclass of
optically selected interacting galaxies (e.g.
Bushouse 1987,
Kennicutt et
al. 1987,
Bushouse et
al. 1988,
Sulentic
1989); however relatively few objects in optically selected samples
are found with Lir > 1011.5 L
.
The high luminosity tail of the infrared galaxy luminosity function
is clearly in excess of what is expected from the Schechter function.
A better description (e.g. Soifer et al. 1987b) is a double power
law with slope -1 at low
luminosity, changing to
a slope of ~ -2.35 at Lbol
1010.3 L
.
For Lbol = 1011-1012 L
, LIGs
are as numerous as Markarian Seyferts and ~ 3 times more numerous than
Markarian starbursts. Ultraluminous infrared galaxies (hereafter ULIGs:
Lir > 1012 L
)
appear to be ~ 2 times more numerous than optically selected QSOs,
the only other previously known population of objects
with comparable bolometric luminosities.
![]() Figure 1. The luminosity function for infrared galaxies compared with other extragalactic objects. References: IRAS RBGS (Sanders et al. 1996a), IRAS 1-Jy Survey of ULIGs (Kim 1995), Palomar-Green QSOs (Schmidt & Green 1983), Markarian starbursts and Seyfert galaxies (Huchra 1977), and normal galaxies (Schechter 1976). Determination of the bolometric luminosity for the optically selected samples was as described in Soifer et al. (1986), except for the adoption of a more accurate bolometric correction for QSOs of 11.8 x ![]() ![]() |
Although LIGs comprise the dominant population of extragalactic objects at
Lbol > 1011 L, they are still relatively
rare. For example, Figure 1 suggests that only
one object with Lir > 1012 L
will be found out to a redshift of ~ 0.033, and indeed,
Arp 220 (z = 0.018) is the only ULIG within
this volume. The total
infrared luminosity from LIGs in the IRAS Bright Galaxy Survey (BGS)
is only ~ 6% of the infrared emission in the local Universe
(Soifer &
Neugebauer 1991).
Comparison of the space density of ULIGs in the 1-Jy Survey with ``local''
ULIGs from the BGS provides some evidence for possible strong evolution in
the luminosity function at the highest infrared luminosities.
Assuming pure density evolution of the form (z)
(1 +
z)n,
Kim (1995)
found n ~ 7 ± 3 for the complete 1-Jy sample of ULIGs, the
uncertainty being influenced primarily by the small range of redshift
(zmax = 0.27) and the apparent effects of local large scale
structure: Nearly all of the evidence for strong evolution comes from ULIGs
at flux levels f60 = 1-2 Jy corresponding to sources at
z
0.13. No
evidence for evolution is found for the subsample of
2 Jy ULIGs, i.e. n = 3.8 ± 3
(Kim & Sanders
1996). These results appear to be consistent with previous debates
in the literature which find n ~ 5.6-7
for redshift surveys with flux limits f60 ~ 0.5 Jy
(Saunders et
al. 1990,
Oliver et
al. 1995) but only n ~ 3-4 for surveys
with flux limits f60
1.5 Jy
(Fisher et
al. 1992), and with analyses of IRAS extragalactic source
counts (Hacking et
al. 1987,
Lonsdale & Hacking
1989,
Lonsdale et
al. 1990,
Gregorich et
al. 1995)
that show evidence for strong evolution only at relatively
low flux levels (f60
1 Jy). More definitive tests of
whether the luminosity function for ULIGs indeed evolves strongly, and how
this may compare, for example, with the strong evolution seen for the most
luminous QSOs (e.g.
Schmidt & Green
1983), will need to wait for future more
sensitive infrared surveys.
3.2 Spectral Energy Distributions
The infrared properties for the complete IRAS BGS have been summarized and combined with optical data to determine the relative luminosity output from galaxies in the local Universe at wavelengths ~ 0.1-1000 µm (Soifer & Neugebauer 1991). Figure 2 uses data from Sanders et al. (1996a, b) and Kim (1995) to illustrate how the shape of the mean spectral energy distribution (SED) varies for galaxies with increasing total infrared luminosity. Systematic variations are observed in the mean infrared colors; the ratio f60/f100 increases while f12 / f25 decreases with increasing infrared luminosity. Figure 2 also illustrates that the observed range of over 3 orders of magnitude in Lir for infrared-selected galaxies is accompanied by less than a factor of 3-4 change in the optical luminosity.
![]() Figure 2. Variation of the mean SEDs (from submillimeter to UV wavelengths) with increasing Lir for a 60 µm sample of infrared galaxies. (Insert) Examples of the subset (~ 15%) of ULIGs with ``warm'' infrared color (f25 / f60 > 0.3). Data for the three objects (1 - the powerful Wolf-Rayet galaxy IRAS 01003-2238, 2 - the ``infrared QSO'' IRAS 07598+6508, 3 - the optically selected QSO I Zw 1) are from Sanders et al. (1988b). |
Various models of the infrared emission (e.g.
Helou 1986,
Rowan-Robinson 1986,
Rowan-Robinson &
Efstathiou 1993) have
suggested that in lower luminosity ``normal'' galaxies the secondary peak
in the mid-infrared is due to emission from small dust grains near hot stars,
while the stronger peak
at
100-200 µm
represents emission dominated by dust from infrared
cirrus (TD
20 K) heated substantially by the older stellar
population. In more infrared luminous
galaxies a ``starburst'' component emerges (TD ~ 30-60
K) with a peak closer to 60 µm, plus, in Seyfert galaxies,
an even warmer component (TD ~ 150-250 K)
peaking near 25 µm, presumably representing warm dust
directly heated by the AGN.
Sanders et
al. (1988b) showed that a small but significant fraction of ULIGs,
those with ``warm'' (f25 / f60 >
0.3) infrared colors, have SEDs
with mid-infrared emission (~ 5-40 µm) over an order of magnitude
stronger than the larger fraction of ``cooler'' ULIGs. These
warm galaxies (Figure 2 insert), which appear to
span a wide range of classes of extragalactic objects
including powerful radio galaxies (PRGs: L408MHz 1025 W Hz-1)
and optically selected QSOs, have been used as
evidence for an evolutionary connection between ULIGs and QSOs
(e.g. Sanders et
al. 1988a,
b). This
connection is strengthened by
IRAS data for QSOs (Figure 3), which
shows that the mean SED of optically selected
QSOs is dominated by thermal emission from an infrared/submillimeter bump
(~ 1-300 µm) in addition to the ``big blue bump''
(~ 0.05-1 µm); the former
is typically 30% as strong as the latter and is presumably thermal
emission from dust in an extended circumnuclear disk surrounding the
active nucleus.
![]() Figure 3. Mean spectral energy distributions from radio to X-ray wavelengths of optically selected radio-loud and radio-quiet QSOs (Sanders et al. 1989a), and Blazars (Impey & Neugebauer 1988). |