Luminosity Functions of Local Infrared Galaxies with AKARI: Implications to the Cosmic Star Formation History and AGN Evolution

TL;DR

This paper uses AKARI infrared data to measure the local infrared luminosity function of galaxies, analyze the contributions of star formation and AGN activity, and explore their evolution up to high redshifts, shedding light on cosmic star formation and black hole growth.

Contribution

It provides new IR luminosity functions from AKARI data, separates star-forming and AGN contributions, and quantifies their evolution with redshift, improving understanding of galaxy evolution.

Findings

Local IR luminosity density is quantified as 8.5e7 L Mpc^-3.

Star-forming and AGN IR contributions evolve strongly with redshift, roughly as (1+z)^4.

ULIRGs dominate AGN IR contribution by z~1.

Abstract

Infrared (IR) luminosity is fundamental to understanding the cosmic star formation history and AGN evolution. The AKARI IR space telescope performed all sky survey in 6 IR bands (9, 18, 65, 90, 140, and 160um) with 3-10 times better sensitivity than IRAS, covering the crucial far-IR wavelengths across the peak of the dust emission. Combined with a better spatial resolution, AKARI can much more precisely measure the total infrared luminosity (L_TIR) of individual galaxies, and thus, the total infrared luminosity density in the local Universe. By fitting IR SED models, we have re-measured L_TIR of the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample. We present mid-IR monochromatic luminosity to L_TIR conversions for Spitzer 8,24um, AKARI 9,18um, IRAS 12um, WISE 12,22um, and ISO 15um filters, with scatter ranging 13-44%. The resulting AKARI IR luminosity function (LF) agrees well with that from the IRAS. We integrate the LF weighted by L_TIR to obtain a cosmic IR luminosity density of Omega_TIR= (8.5^{+1.5}_{-2.3})x 10^7 L Mpc^-3, of which 7+-1% is produced by LIRGs, and only 0.4+-0.1% is from ULIRGs in the local Universe. Once IR contributions from AGN and star-forming galaxies (SFG) are separated, SFG IR LF shows a steep decline at the bright-end. Compared with high-redshift results from the AKARI NEP deep survey, these data show a strong evolution of Omega_TIRSF propto (1+z)^4.0+-0.5, and Omega_TIRAGN propto (1+z)^4.4+-0.4. For Omega_TIRAGN, the ULIRG contribution exceeds that from LIRG already by z~1. A rapid evolution in both Omega_TIRAGN and Omega_TIRSFG suggests the correlation between star formation and black hole accretion rate continues up to higher redshifts. We compare the evolution of Omega_TIRAGN to that of X-ray luminosity density. The Omega_TIRAGN/Omega_X-rayAGN ratio shows a possible increase at z>1, suggesting an increase of obscured AGN at z>1.