Spitzer Spectroscopy of Infrared-Luminous Galaxies: Diagnostics of AGN and Star Formation and Contribution to Total Infrared Luminosity

TL;DR

This study uses Spitzer IRS spectroscopy to analyze 65 infrared-luminous galaxies, distinguishing AGN from star-formation activity, and finds that PAH features reliably trace star formation even in AGN-hosting galaxies.

Contribution

It provides new diagnostics for separating AGN and star formation contributions in IR-luminous galaxies using PAH features and mid-IR spectra.

Findings

PAH luminosity correlates with [Ne II], tracing SFR in both AGN and non-AGN galaxies.

Most IRAGN have star formation contributing 10-50% to total IR luminosity.

AGN do not significantly affect PAH ratios on galaxy-wide scales.

Abstract

We use Spitzer IRS spectroscopy to study the nature 65 IR-luminous galaxies at 0.02 < z < 0.6 with F(24micron) > 1.2mJy. The IRS spectra cover wavelengths spanning the PAH features and important atomic diagnostic lines. Our sample corresponds to L(IR) = L(8-1000micron) = 10^10-10^12 Lsun. We divide our galaxies into those with Spitzer IRAC colors indicative of warm dust heated by an AGN (IRAGN) and those whose colors indicate star-formation processes (non-IRAGN). Compared to the non-IRAGN, the IRAGN show smaller PAH emission EWs, which we attribute to an increase in mid-IR continuum from the AGN. We find that in both the IRAGN and non-IRAGN samples, the PAH luminosities correlate strongly with the [Ne II] emission, from which we conclude that the PAH luminosity directly traces the instantaneous SFR in both the IRAGN and non-IRAGN galaxies. We compare the ratio of PAH luminosity to the total IR luminosity and show that for most IRAGN star-formation accounts for 10-50% of the L(IR). We also find no measurable difference between the PAH luminosity ratios of L(11.3)/L(7.7) and L(6.2)/L(7.7) for the IRAGN and non-IRAGN, suggesting that AGN do not significantly excite or destroy PAH molecules on galaxy-wide scales. A small subset of galaxies show excess of [O IV] emission compared to their PAH emission, which indicates the presence of heavily-obscured AGN, including 3 galaxies that are not otherwise selected as IRAGN. The low PAH emission and low [Ne II] emission of the IRAGN and [O IV]-excess objects imply they have low SFRs and their IR luminosity is dominated by processes associated with the AGN.