Extended [CII] Emission in Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel/PACS data to analyze extended [CII] emission in local luminous infrared galaxies, revealing differences between nuclear and extra-nuclear regions and implications for star formation models.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed spatially-resolved analysis of [CII] emission in local LIRGs, highlighting the distribution and properties of star-forming regions beyond nuclei.

Findings

Most extra-nuclear [CII]/FIR ratios exceed 4 x 10^-3.

LIRG nuclei show [CII] deficits, unlike extended regions.

An anti-correlation exists between [CII]/FIR and surface brightness in extended emission.

Abstract

We present Herschel/PACS observations of extended [CII]157.7{\mu}m line emission detected on ~ 1 - 10 kpc scales in 60 local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) from the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). We find that most of the extra-nuclear emission show [CII]/FIR ratios >~ 4 x 10^-3, larger than the mean ratio seen in the nuclei, and similar to those found in the extended disks of normal star-forming galaxies and the diffuse inter-stellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy. The [CII] "deficits" found in the most luminous local LIRGs are therefore restricted to their nuclei. There is a trend for LIRGs with warmer nuclei to show larger differences between their nuclear and extra-nuclear [CII]/FIR ratios. We find an anti-correlation between [CII]/FIR and the luminosity surface density, {\Sigma}_IR, for the extended emission in the spatially-resolved galaxies. However, there is an offset between this trend and that found for the LIRG nuclei. We use this offset to derive a beam filling-factor for the star-forming regions within the LIRG disks of ~ 6 % relative to their nuclei. We confront the observed trend to photo-dissociation region (PDR) models and find that the slope of the correlation is much shallower than the model predictions. Finally, we compare the correlation found between [CII]/FIR and {\Sigma}_IR with measurements of high-redshift starbursting IR-luminous galaxies.