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Star formation depends critically on cooling mechanisms in the interstellar medium (ISM); however, thermal properties of gas in galaxies at the peak epoch of star formation (z ∼ 2) remain poorly understood. A limiting factor in understanding the multiphase ISM is the lack of multiple tracers detected in the same galaxies, such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) emission, a tracer of a critical photoelectric heating mechanism in interstellar gas, and [C ii] 158 μm fine-structure emission, a principal coolant. We present ALMA Band 9 observations targeting [C ii] in six z ∼ 2 star-forming galaxies with strong Spitzer IRS detections of PAH emission. All six galaxies are detected in dust continuum and marginally resolved. We compare the properties of PAH and [C ii] emission, and constrain their relationship as a function of total infrared luminosity (LIR) and IR surface density. [C ii] emission is detected in one galaxy at high signal-to-noise (34σ), and we place a secure upper limit on a second source. The rest of our sample are not detected in [C ii] likely due to redshift uncertainties and narrow ALMA bandpass windows. Our results are consistent with the deficit in [C ii]/LIR and PAH/LIR observed in the literature. However, the ratio of [C ii] to PAH emission at z ∼ 2 is possibly much lower than what is observed in nearby dusty star-forming galaxies. This could be the result of enhanced cooling via [O i] at high-z, hotter gas and dust temperatures, and/or a reduction in the photoelectric efficiency, in which the coupling between interstellar radiation and gas heating is diminished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the highest-resolution—15 pc (0.″03)—ALMA 12CO(2–1) line emission and 1.3 mm continuum maps, tracers of the molecular gas and dust, respectively, in the nearby merging galaxy system NGC 6240, which hosts two supermassive black holes growing simultaneously. These observations provide an excellent spatial match to existing HubbleSpace Telescope (HST) optical and near-infrared observations of this system. A significant molecular gas mass, ∼9 × 109M⊙, is located between the two nuclei, forming a clumpy stream kinematically dominated by turbulence, rather than a smooth rotating disk, as previously assumed from lower-resolution data. Evidence for rotation is seen in the gas surrounding the southern nucleus but not in the northern one. Dynamical shells can be seen, likely associated with nuclear supernova remnants. We further detect the presence of significant high-velocity outflows, some of them reaching velocities >500 km s−1, affecting a significant fraction, ∼11%, of the molecular gas in the nuclear region. Inside the spheres of influence of the northern and southern supermassive black holes, we find molecular masses of 7.4 × 108 and 3.3 × 109M⊙, respectively. We are thus directly imaging the reservoir of gas that can accrete onto each supermassive black hole. These new ALMA maps highlight the critical need for high-resolution observations of molecular gas in order to understand the feeding of supermassive black holes and its connection to galaxy evolution in the context of a major galaxy merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present resolved [C i] line intensities of 18 nearby galaxies observed with the SPIRE FTS spectrometer on the Herschel Space Observatory. We use these data along with resolved CO line intensities from Jup = 1 to 7 to interpret what phase of the interstellar medium the [C i] lines trace within typical local galaxies. A tight, linear relation is found between the intensities of the CO(4–3) and [C i](2–1) lines; we hypothesize this is due to the similar upper level temperature of these two lines. We modeled the [C i] and CO line emission using large-velocity gradient models combined with an empirical template. According to this modeling, the [C i](1–0) line is clearly dominated by the low-excitation component. We determine [C i] to molecular mass conversion factors for both the [C i](1–0) and [C i](2–1) lines, with mean values of α[C i](1−0) = 7.3 M⊙ K−1 km−1 s pc−2 and α[C i](2−1) = 34 M⊙ K−1 km−1 s pc−2 with logarithmic root-mean-square spreads of 0.20 and 0.32 dex, respectively. The similar spread of to (derived using the CO(2–1) line) suggests that [C i](1–0) may be just as good a tracer of cold molecular gas as CO(2–1) in galaxies of this type. On the other hand, the wider spread of α[C i](2−1) and the tight relation found between [C i](2–1) and CO(4–3) suggest that much of the [C i](2–1) emission may originate in warmer molecular gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of feedback in triggering or quenching star formation and hence driving galaxy evolution can be directly studied with high-resolution integral field observations. The manifestation of feedback in shocks is particularly important to examine in galaxy mergers, where violent interactions of gas take place in the interstellar medium during the course of the galactic collision. As part of our effort to systematically study the local population of luminous infrared galaxies within the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey, we undertook the Keck OSIRIS AO LIRG Analysis observing campaign to study the gas dynamics in the inner kiloparsec regions of these systems at spatial scales of a few tens of pc. With high-resolution near-infrared adaptive optics–assisted integral field observations taken with OSIRIS on the Keck Telescopes, we employ near-infrared diagnostics such as Brγ and the rovibrationally excited H2 lines to quantify the nuclear star formation rate and identify feedback associated with shocked molecular gas seen in 21 nearby luminous infrared galaxies. Shocked molecular gas is preferentially found in the ultraluminous infrared systems but may also be triggered at a lower-luminosity, earlier merging stage. On circumnuclear scales, AGNs have a strong effect on heating the surrounding molecular gas, though their coupling is not simply driven by AGN strength but rather is complicated by orientation, dust shielding, density, and other factors. We find that nuclear star formation correlates with merger class and diminishing projected nuclear separations. These trends are largely consistent with the picture of merger-induced starbursts in the center of galaxy mergers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate star-forming scaling relations using Bayesian inference on a comprehensive data sample of low- (z < 0.1) and high-redshift (1 < z < 5) star-forming regions. This full data set spans a wide range of host galaxy stellar mass (M* ∼ 106–1011 ) and clump star formation rates (SFR ∼ 10−5 −102 yr−1). We fit the power-law relationship between the size () and luminosity () of the star-forming clumps using the Bayesian statistical modeling tool Stan, which makes use of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling techniques. Trends in the scaling relationship are explored for the full sample and subsets based on redshift and selection effects between samples. In our investigation, we find neither evidence of redshift evolution of the size–luminosity scaling relationship nor a difference in slope between lensed and unlensed data. There is evidence of a break in the scaling relationship between high and low SFR surface density () clumps. The size–luminosity power-law fit results are ∼ 2.8 and ∼ 1.7 for low and high clumps, respectively. We present a model where star-forming clumps form at locations of gravitational instability and produce an ionized region represented by the Strömgren radius. A radius smaller than the scale height of the disk results in a scaling relationship of L ∝ r3 (high clumps), and a scaling of L ∝ r2 (low clumps) if the radius is larger than the disk scale height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We revisit the proposed extended Schmidt law, which posits that the star formation efficiency in galaxies depends on the stellar mass surface density, by investigating spatially resolved star formation rates (SFRs), gas masses, and stellar masses of star formation regions in a vast range of galactic environments, from the outer disks of dwarf galaxies, to spiral disks and to merging galaxies, as well as individual molecular clouds in M33. We find that these regions are distributed in a tight power law as ∝ , which is also valid for the integrated measurements of disk and merging galaxies at high-z. Interestingly, we show that star formation regions in the outer disks of dwarf galaxies with down to 10−5 yr−1 kpc−2, which are outliers of both the Kennicutt–Schmidt and Silk–Elmegreen laws, also follow the extended Schmidt law. Other outliers in the Kennicutt–Schmidt law, such as extremely metal-poor star formation regions, also show significantly reduced deviation from the extended Schmidt law. These results suggest an important role for existing stars in helping to regulate star formation through the effect of their gravity on the midplane pressure in a wide range of galactic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present high angular resolution multiwavelength data of the 3C 298 radio-loud quasar host galaxy (z = 1.439) taken using the W.M. Keck Observatory OSIRIS integral field spectrograph (IFS) with adaptive optics, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3, and the Very Large Array (VLA). Extended emission is detected in the rest-frame optical nebular emission lines Hβ, [O iii], Hα, [N ii], and [S ii], as well as in the molecular lines CO (J = 3−2) and (J = 5−4). Along the path of the relativistic jets of 3C 298, we detect conical outflows in ionized gas emission with velocities of up to 1700 and an outflow rate of 450–1500 extended over 12 kpc. Near the spatial center of the conical outflow, CO (J = 3−2) emission shows a molecular gas disk with a rotational velocity of ±150 and total molecular mass () of . On the blueshifted side of the molecular disk, we observe broad extended emission that is due to a molecular outflow with a rate of 2300 and depletion timescale of 3 Myr. We detect no narrow Hα emission in the outflow regions, suggesting a limit on star formation of 0.3 . Quasar-driven winds are evacuating the molecular gas reservoir, thereby directly impacting star formation in the host galaxy. The observed mass of the supermassive black hole is , and we determine a dynamical bulge mass of . The bulge mass of 3C 298 lies 2–2.5 orders of magnitude below the expected value from the local galactic bulge—supermassive black hole mass () relationship. A second galactic disk observed in nebular emission is offset from the quasar by 9 kpc, suggesting that the system is an intermediate-stage merger. These results show that galactic-scale negative feedback is occurring early in the merger phase of 3C 298, well before the coalescence of the galactic nuclei and assembly on the local relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present calibrations for star formation rate (SFR) indicators in the ultraviolet, mid-infrared, and radio-continuum bands, including one of the first direct calibrations of 150 MHz as an SFR indicator. Our calibrations utilize 66 nearby star-forming galaxies with Balmer-decrement-corrected luminosities, which span five orders of magnitude in SFR and have absolute magnitudes of . Most of our photometry and spectrophotometry are measured from the same region of each galaxy, and our spectrophotometry has been validated with SDSS photometry, so our random and systematic errors are small relative to the intrinsic scatter seen in SFR indicator calibrations. We find that the Wide-field Infrared Space Explorer W4 (22.8 μm), Spitzer 24 μm, and 1.4 GHz bands have tight correlations with the Balmer-decrement-corrected Hα luminosity, with a scatter of only 0.2 dex. Our calibrations are comparable to those from the prior literature for L∗ galaxies, but for dwarf galaxies, our calibrations can give SFRs that are far greater than those derived from most previous literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an initial result from the 12CO (J = 1–0) survey of 79 galaxies in 62 local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxy (LIRG and ULIRG) systems obtained using the 45 m telescope at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory. This is a systematic 12CO (J = 1–0) survey of the Great Observatories All-sky LIRGs Survey (GOALS) sample. The molecular gas mass of the sample is in the range within the central several kiloparsecs subtended by the beam. A method to estimate the size of a CO gas distribution is introduced, which is combined with the total CO flux in the literature. This method is applied to part of our sample, and we find that the median CO radius is 1–4 kpc. From the early stage to the late stage of mergers, we find that the CO size decreases while the median value of the molecular gas mass in the central several-kiloparsec region is constant. Our results statistically support a scenario where molecular gas inflows toward the central region from the outer disk to replenish gas consumed by starburst, and that such a process is common in merging LIRGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At , the formation of new stars is dominated by dusty galaxies whose far-IR emission indicates they contain colder dust than local galaxies of a similar luminosity. We explore the reasons for the evolving IR emission of similar galaxies over cosmic time using (1) local galaxies from GOALS (), (2) galaxies at from 5MUSES (), and (3) IR luminous galaxies spanning from GOODS and Spitzer xFLS (). All samples have Spitzer mid-IR spectra, and Herschel and ground-based submillimeter imaging covering the full IR spectral energy distribution, allowing us to robustly measure , , and for every galaxy. Despite similar infrared luminosities, dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFG) have a factor of 5 higher dust masses and 5 K colder temperatures. The increase in dust mass is linked to an increase in the gas fractions with redshift, and we do not observe a similar increase in stellar mass or star formation efficiency. , a proxy for , is strongly correlated with independently of redshift. We measure merger classification and galaxy size for a subsample, and there is no obvious correlation between these parameters and or . In DSFG, the change in can fully account for the observed colder dust temperatures, suggesting that any change in the spatial extent of the interstellar medium is a second-order effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an ongoing, five-year systematic search for extragalactic infrared transients, dubbed SPIRITS—SPitzer InfraRed Intensive Transients Survey. In the first year, using Spitzer/IRAC, we searched 190 nearby galaxies with cadence baselines of one month and six months. We discovered over 1958 variables and 43 transients. Here, we describe the survey design and highlight 14 unusual infrared transients with no optical counterparts to deep limits, which we refer to as SPRITEs (eSPecially Red Intermediate-luminosity Transient Events). SPRITEs are in the infrared luminosity gap between novae and supernovae, with [4.5] absolute magnitudes between −11 and −14 (Vega-mag) and [3.6]–[4.5] colors between 0.3 mag and 1.6 mag. The photometric evolution of SPRITEs is diverse, ranging from <0.1 mag yr−1 to >7 mag yr−1. SPRITEs occur in star-forming galaxies. We present an in-depth study of one of them, SPIRITS 14ajc in Messier 83, which shows shock-excited molecular hydrogen emission. This shock may have been triggered by the dynamic decay of a non-hierarchical system of massive stars that led to either the formation of a binary or a protostellar merger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present 90 mas (37 pc) resolution ALMA imaging of Arp 220 in the CO (1-0) line and continuum at . The internal gas distribution and kinematics of both galactic nuclei are well resolved for the first time. In the west nucleus, the major gas and dust emission extends out to 0.″2 radius (74 pc); the central resolution element shows a strong peak in the dust emission but a factor of 3 dip in the CO line emission. In this nucleus, the dust is apparently optically thick () at with a dust brightness temperature of ∼147 K. The column of interstellar matter at this nucleus is cm−2, corresponding to ∼900 gr cm−2. The east nucleus is more elongated with radial extent 0.″3 or ∼111 pc. The derived kinematics of the nuclear disks provide a good fit to the line profiles, yielding the emissivity distributions, the rotation curves, and velocity dispersions. In the west nucleus, there is evidence of a central Keplerian component requiring a central mass of 8 × 108 . The intrinsic widths of the emission lines are (west) and 120 (east) km s−1. Given the very short dissipation timescales for turbulence (≲105 years), we suggest that the line widths may be due to semicoherent motions within the nuclear disks. The symmetry of the nuclear disk structures is impressive, implying the merger timescale is significantly longer than the rotation period of the disks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present, for the first time, the local [C ii] 158 μm emission line luminosity function measured using a sample of more than 500 galaxies from the Revised Bright Galaxy Sample. [C ii] luminosities are measured from the Herschel PACS observations of the Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) in the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey and estimated for the rest of the sample based on the far-infrared (far-IR) luminosity and color. The sample covers 91.3% of the sky and is complete at S60 μm > 5.24 Jy. We calculate the completeness as a function of [C ii] line luminosity and distance, based on the far-IR color and flux densities. The [C ii] luminosity function is constrained in the range ∼107–9L⊙ from both the 1/Vmax and a maximum likelihood methods. The shape of our derived [C ii] emission line luminosity function agrees well with the IR luminosity function. For the CO(1-0) and [C ii] luminosity functions to agree, we propose a varying ratio of [C ii]/CO(1-0) as a function of CO luminosity, with larger ratios for fainter CO luminosities. Limited [C ii] high-redshift observations as well as estimates based on the IR and UV luminosity functions are suggestive of an evolution in the [C ii] luminosity function similar to the evolution trend of the cosmic star formation rate density. Deep surveys using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array with full capability will be able to confirm this prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present [C ii] 158 μm measurements from over 15,000 resolved regions within 54 nearby galaxies of the Kingfish program to investigate the so-called [C ii] “line-cooling deficit” long known to occur in galaxies with different luminosities. The [C ii]/TIR ratio ranges from above 1% to below 0.1% in the sample, with a mean value of 0.48 ± 0.21%. We find that the surface density of 24 μm emission dominates this trend, with [C ii]/TIR dropping as increases. Deviations from this overall decline are correlated with changes in the gas-phase metal abundance, with higher metallicity associated with deeper deficits at a fixed surface brightness. We supplement the local sample with resolved [C ii] measurements from nearby luminous infrared galaxies and high-redshift sources from z = 1.8–6.4, and find that star formation rate density drives a continuous trend of deepening [C ii] deficit across six orders of magnitude in . The tightness of this correlation suggests that an approximate can be estimated directly from global measurements of [C ii]/TIR, and a relation is provided to do so. Several low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) hosts in the sample show additional and significant central suppression of [C ii]/TIR, but these deficit enhancements occur not in those AGNs with the highest X-ray luminosities, but instead those with the highest central starlight intensities. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the [C ii] line-cooling line deficit in galaxies likely arises from local physical phenomena in interstellar gas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present results from the Intermediate Redshift OSIRIS Chemo-Kinematic Survey (IROCKS) for sixteen z ∼ 1 and one z ∼ 1.4 star-forming galaxies. All galaxies were observed with OSIRIS with the laser guide star adaptive optics system at Keck Observatory. We use rest-frame nebular Hα emission lines to trace morphologies and kinematics of ionized gas in star-forming galaxies on sub-kiloparsec physical scales. We observe elevated velocity dispersions (σ ≳ 50 km s−1) seen in z > 1.5 galaxies persist at z ∼ 1 in the integrated galaxies. Using an inclined disk model and the ratio of , we find that 1/3 of the z ∼ 1 sample are disk candidates while the other 2/3 of the sample are dominated by merger-like and irregular sources. We find that including extra attenuation toward H ii regions derived from stellar population synthesis modeling brings star formation rates (SFRs) using Hα and stellar population fit into a better agreement. We explore the properties of the compact Hα sub-component, or “clump,” at z ∼ 1 and find that they follow a similar size–luminosity relation as local H ii regions but are scaled-up by an order of magnitude with higher luminosities and sizes. Comparing the z ∼ 1 clumps to other high-redshift clump studies, we determine that the clump SFR surface density evolves as a function of redshift. This suggests clump formation is directly related to the gas fraction in these systems and may support disk fragmentation as their formation mechanism since gas fraction scales with redshift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present integral field spectrograph (IFS) with laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS-AO) observations of z ∼ 2 quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) designed to resolve extended nebular line emission from the host galaxy. Our data was obtained with W. M. Keck and Gemini North Observatories, using OSIRIS and NIFS coupled with the LGS-AO systems, respectively. We have conducted a pilot survey of five QSOs, three observed with NIFS+AO and two observed with OSIRIS+AO at an average redshift of z = 2.2. We demonstrate that the combination of AO and IFSs provides the necessary spatial and spectral resolutions required to separate QSO emission from its host. We present our technique for generating a point-spread function (PSF) from the broad-line region of the QSO and performing PSF subtraction of the QSO emission to detect the host galaxy emission at a separation of ∼0.″2 (∼1.4 kpc). We detect Hα narrow-line emission for two sources, SDSS J1029+6510 (zHα = 2.182) and SDSS J0925+0655 (zHα = 2.197), that have evidence for both star formation and extended narrow-line emission. Assuming that the majority of narrow-line Hα emission is from star formation, we infer a star formation rate (SFR) for SDSS J1029+6510 of 78.4 M⊙ yr−1 originating from a compact region that is kinematically offset by 290–350 km s−1. For SDSS J0925+0655 we infer a SFR of 29 M⊙ yr−1 distributed over three clumps that are spatially offset by ∼7 kpc. The null detections on three of the QSOs are used to infer surface brightness limits and we find that at 1.4 kpc from the QSO the un-reddened star formation limit is ≲0.3 M⊙ yr−1 kpc−2. If we assume typical extinction values for z = 2 type-1 QSOs, the dereddened SFR for our null detections would be ≲0.6 M⊙ yr−1 kpc−2. These IFS observations indicate that while the central black hole is accreting mass at 10%–40% of the Eddington rate, if star formation is present in the host (1.4–20 kpc) it would have to occur diffusely with significant extinction and not in compact, clumpy regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report our high-resolution (0.″20 × 0.″14 or ∼70 × 49 pc) observations of the CO(6-5) line emission, which probes warm and dense molecular gas, and the 434 μm dust continuum in the nuclear region of NGC 7130, obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). The CO line and dust continuum fluxes detected in our ALMA observations are 1230 ± 74 Jy km s−1 and 814 ± 52 mJy, respectively, which account for 100% and 51% of their total fluxes. We find that the CO(6-5) and dust emissions are generally spatially correlated, but their brightest peaks show an offset of ∼70 pc, suggesting that the gas and dust emissions may start decoupling at this physical scale. The brightest peak of the CO(6-5) emission does not spatially correspond to the radio continuum peak, which is likely dominated by an active galactic nucleus (AGN). This, together with our additional quantitative analysis, suggests that the heating contribution of the AGN to the CO(6-5) emission in NGC 7130 is negligible. The CO(6-5) and the extinction-corrected Pa-α maps display striking differences, suggestive of either a breakdown of the correlation between warm dense gas and star formation at linear scales of <100 pc or a large uncertainty in our extinction correction to the observed Pa-α image. Over a larger scale of ∼2.1 kpc, the double-lobed structure found in the CO(6-5) emission agrees well with the dust lanes in the optical/near-infrared images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterize infrared spectral energy distributions of 343 (ultra)luminous infrared galaxies from z = 0.3–2.8. We diagnose the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) by decomposing individual Spitzer mid-IR spectroscopy into emission from star formation and an AGN-powered continuum; we classify sources as star-forming galaxies (SFGs), AGNs, or composites. Composites comprise 30% of our sample and are prevalent at faint and bright S24, making them an important source of IR AGN emission. We combine spectroscopy with multiwavelength photometry, including Herschel imaging, to create three libraries of publicly available templates (2–1000 μm). We fit the far-IR emission using a two-temperature modified blackbody to measure cold and warm dust temperatures (Tc and Tw). We find that Tc does not depend on mid-IR classification, while Tw shows a notable increase as the AGN grows more luminous. We measure a quadratic relationship between mid-IR AGN emission and total AGN contribution to LIR. AGNs, composites, and SFGs separate in S8/S3.6 and S250/S24, providing a useful diagnostic for estimating relative amounts of these sources. We estimate that >40% of IR-selected samples host an AGN, even at faint selection thresholds (S24 > 100 μJy). Our decomposition technique and color diagnostics are relevant given upcoming observations with the James Webb Space Telescope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present black hole mass measurements from kinematic modeling of high-spatial resolution integral field spectroscopy of the inner regions of nine nearby (ultra-)luminous infrared galaxies in a variety of merger stages. These observations were taken with OSIRIS and laser guide star adaptive optics on the Keck I and Keck II telescopes, and reveal gas and stellar kinematics inside the spheres of influence of these supermassive black holes. We find that this sample of black holes are overmassive (∼107–9 ) compared to the expected values based on black hole scaling relations, and suggest that the major epoch of black hole growth occurs in early stages of a merger, as opposed to during a final episode of quasar-mode feedback. The black hole masses presented are the dynamical masses enclosed in ∼25 pc, and could include gas which is gravitationally bound to the black hole but has not yet lost sufficient angular momentum to be accreted. If present, this gas could in principle eventually fuel active galactic nucleus feedback or be itself blown out from the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]