Unveiling the dominant gas heating mechanism in local LIRGs and ULIRGs

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution radio observations to identify the main gas heating mechanism in local LIRGs and ULIRGs, while also measuring supernova rates and star formation activity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the dominant gas heating processes in local (U)LIRGs using advanced radio interferometry techniques.

Findings

Preliminary identification of dominant heating mechanisms.

Measurement of CCSN rates in local (U)LIRGs.

Estimation of star-formation rates from radio data.

Abstract

We show preliminary results from a sample of Luminous and Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs, respectively) in the local universe, obtained from observations using the Very Large Array (VLA), the Multi-Element Radio Link Interferometer Network (MERLIN), and the European VLBI Network (EVN). The main goal of our high-resolution, high-sensitivity radio observations is to unveil the dominant gas heating mechanism in the central regions of local (U)LIRGs. The main tracer of recent star-formation in (U)LIRGs is the explosion of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe), which are the endproducts of the explosion of massive stars and yield bright radio events. Therefore, our observations will not only allow us to answer the question of the dominant heating mechanism in (U)LIRGs, but will yield also the CCSN rate and the star-formation rate (SFR) for the galaxies of the sample.