The physical properties of local (U)LIRGs: A comparison with nearby early- and late-type galaxies

Abstract

Aims. In order to pinpoint the place of the (ultra-) luminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs) in the local Universe, we examine the properties of a sample of 67 such nearby systems and compare them with those of 268 early- and 542 late-type, well studied, galaxies from the DustPedia database. Methods. We made use of multi-wavelength photometric data (from the ultra-violet to the sub-millimetre), culled from the literature, and the CIGALE spectral energy distribution fitting code to extract the physical parameters of each system. The median spectral energy distributions as well as the values of the derived parameters were compared to those of the local early- and late-type galaxies. In addition to that, (U)LIRGs were divided into seven classes, according to the merging stage of each system, and variations in the derived parameters were investigated. Results. (U)LIRGs occupy the ‘high-end’ on the dust mass, stellar mass, and star-formation rate (SFR) plane in the local Universe with median values of 5.2 × 107 M⊙, 6.3 × 1010 M⊙, and 52 M⊙ yr−1, respectively. The median value of the dust temperature in (U)LIRGs is 32 K, which is higher compared to both the early-type (28 K) and the late-type (22 K) galaxies. The dust emission in PDR regions in (U)LIRGs is 11.7% of the total dust luminosity, which is significantly higher than early-type (1.6%) and late-type (5.2%) galaxies. Small differences in the derived parameters are seen for the seven merging classes of our sample of (U)LIRGs with the most evident one being on the SFR, where in systems in late merging stages (‘M3’ and ‘M4’) the median SFR reaches up to 99 M⊙ yr−1 compared to 26 M⊙ yr−1 for the isolated ones. In contrast to the local early- and late-type galaxies where the old stars are the dominant source of the stellar emission, the young stars in (U)LIRGs contribute with 64% of their luminosity to the total stellar luminosity. The fraction of the stellar luminosity absorbed by the dust is extremely high in (U)LIRGs (78%) compared to 7% and 25% in early- and late-type galaxies, respectively. The fraction of the stellar luminosity used to heat up the dust grains is very high in (U)LIRGs, for both stellar components (92% and 56% for the young and the old stellar populations, respectively) while 74% of the dust emission comes from the young stars.

Low-frequency Radio Continuum Imaging and SED Modeling of 11 LIRGs: Radio-only and FUV to Radio Bands

“…Table 3 gives the set parameters used to build the SEDs of our galaxies. We adopted parameters similar to those used in Małek et al (2017) and Paspaliaris et al (2021) and modified them accordingly to suit the galaxies in the current sample. The SED fitting was performed with a very careful adjustment of the fitting parameters, module by module.…”

“…In Figure 9 we show the relation of SFR IR with dust mass for our sample, including data from the literature for normal starforming galaxies in the Local Universe (da Cunha et al 2010), LIRGs at low (z < 0.5) and high (z > 0.5) redshifts (Vega et al 2008;Lo Faro et al 2013;Pereira-Santaella et al 2015;da Cunha et al 2015;Małek et al 2018;Paspaliaris et al 2021), and ULIRGs at low and high redshifts (Vega et al 2008;da Cunha et al 2015;Małek et al 2017Małek et al , 2018. Our sample of LIRGs lies essentially in between the two sequences of normal and starburst galaxies defined by Rowlands et al (2014), in excellent agreement with the behavior shown by starburst galaxies.…”

“…Therefore, different regimes of the broad SED provide critical insight into the nature, origin of emission, and factors that establish the energy balance. The astrophysical properties of galaxies using the Code Investigating GALaxy Emission (CIGALE) model set for main-sequence (normal) star-forming galaxies (Ciesla et al 2017;Vika et al 2017;Pearson et al 2018;Riccio et al 2021;Shirley et al 2021), LIRGs, and ULIRGs have been characterized (Małek et al 2017(Małek et al , 2018Paspaliaris et al 2021). As these galaxies can host AGNs, the CIGALE code includes the AGN component in the modeling.…”

Probing the spectral shape of dust emission with the DustPedia galaxy sample

“…Viaene et al 2017;Bianchi et al 2018), with the absorption fraction rising up to even ∼ 87 per cent in the special cases of (ultra) luminous infrared galaxies (e.g. Paspaliaris et al 2021).…”

Probing the spectral shape of dust emission with the DustPedia galaxy sample

“…Hirashita 2012;Draine 2009;Asano et al 2013;Zhukovska 2014;Galliano et al 2018Galliano et al , 2021Granato et al 2021), except at low-metallicity environ-∼ 87% in the special cases of (ultra) luminous infrared galaxies ((U)LIRGs; e.g. Paspaliaris et al 2021).…”