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We present the results of large-area CO J=3-2 emission mapping of three nearby field galaxies, NGC 628, NGC 3521, and NGC 3627, completed at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope as part of the Nearby Galaxies Legacy Survey. These galaxies all have moderate to strong CO J=3-2 detections over large areas of the fields observed by the survey, showing resolved structure and dynamics in their warm/dense molecular gas disks. All three galaxies were part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey sample, and as such have excellent published multi-wavelength ancillary data. These data sets allow us to examine the star formation properties, gas content, and dynamics of these galaxies on sub-kiloparsec scales. We find that the global gas depletion times for dense/warm molecular gas in these galaxies is consistent with other results for nearby spiral galaxies, indicating this may be independent of galaxy properties such as structures, gas compositions, and environments. Similar to the results from the THINGS HI survey, we do not see a correlation of the star formation efficiency with the gas surface density consistent with the Schmidt-Kennicutt law. Finally, we find that the star formation efficiency of the dense molecular gas traced by CO J=3-2 is potentially flat or slightly declining as a function of molecular gas density, the CO J=3-2/J=1-0 ratio (in contrast to the correlation found in a previous study into the starburst galaxy M83), and the fraction of total gas in molecular form.

We present large-area maps of the CO J=3-2 emission obtained at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope for four spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. We combine these data with published CO J=1-0, 24 micron, and Halpha images to measure the CO line ratios, molecular gas masses, and instantaneous gas depletion times. For three galaxies in our sample (NGC 4254, NGC4321, and NGC 4569), we obtain molecular gas masses of 7E8-3E9 Msun and disk-averaged instantaneous gas depletion times of 1.1-1.7 Gyr. We argue that the CO J=3-2 line is a better tracer of the dense star forming molecular gas than the CO J=1-0 line, as it shows a better correlation with the star formation rate surface density both within and between galaxies. NGC 4254 appears to have a larger star formation efficiency(smaller gas depletion time), perhaps because it is on its first passage through the Virgo Cluster. NGC 4569 shows a large-scale gradient in the gas properties traced by the CO J=3-2/J=1-0 line ratio, which suggests that its interaction with the intracluster medium is affecting the dense star-forming portion of the interstellar medium directly. The fourth galaxy in our sample, NGC 4579, has weak CO J=3-2 emission despite having bright 24 micron emission; however, much of the central luminosity in this galaxy may be due to the presence of a central AGN.

We discuss optical associations, spectral energy distributions and photometric redshifts for SWIRE sources in the ELAIS-N1 area and the Lockman Validation Field. The band-merged IRAC (3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 mu) and MIPS (24, 70, 160 mu) data have been associated with optical UgriZ data from the INT Wide Field Survey in ELAIS-N1, and with our own optical Ugri data in Lockman-VF. The spectral energy distributions of selected ELAIS sources in N1 detected by SWIRE, most with spectroscopic redshifts, are modelled in terms of a simple set of galaxy and quasar templates in the optical and near infrared, and with a set of dust emission templates (cirrus, M82 starburst, Arp 220 starburst, and AGN dust torus) in the mid infrared. The optical data, together with the IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 mu data, have been used to determine photometric redshifts. For galaxies with known spectroscopic redshifts there is a notable improvement in the photometric redshift when the IRAC data are used, with a reduction in the rms scatter from 10% in (1+z) to 7%. The photometric redshifts are used to derive the 3.6 and 24 mu redshift distribution and to compare this with the predictions of models. For those sources with a clear mid infrared excess, relative to the galaxy starlight model used for the optical and near infrared, the mid and far infrared data are modelled in terms of the same dust emission templates. The proportions found of each template type are: cirrus 31%, M82 29%, Arp 220 10%, AGN dust tori 29%. The distribution of the different infrared sed types in the L_{ir}/L_{opt} versus L_{ir} plane, where L_{ir} and L_{opt} are the infrared and optical bolometric luminosities, is discussed.

We present Spitzer observations in five wavebands between 3.6 and 24um of an unbiased sample of 9 luminous, dusty galaxies selected at 1200um by the MAMBO camera on the IRAM 30-m telescope, a population akin to the well-known submm or `SCUBA' galaxies (hereafter SMGs). Owing to the coarse resolution of submm/mm instrumentation, SMGs have traditionally been difficult to identify at other wavelengths. We compare our multi-wavelength catalogs to show that the overlap between 24 and 1200um must be close to complete at these flux levels. We find that all (4/4) of the most secure >=4sigma SMGs have robust >=4sigma counterparts at 1.4GHz, while the fraction drops to 7/9 using all >=3sigma SMGs. We show that combining mid-IR and marginal (>=3sigma) radio detections provides plausible identifications in the remaining cases, enabling us to identify the complete sample. Accretion onto an obscured central engine is betrayed by the shape of the mid-IR continuum emission for several sources, confirming Spitzer's potential to weed out active galaxies. We demonstrate the power of a S(24um)/S(8um) vs S(8um)/S(4.5um) color-color plot as a diagnostic for this purpose. However, we conclude that the majority (~75%) of SMGs have rest-frame mid-/far-IR SEDs commensurate with obscured starbursts. Sensitive 24-um observations are clearly a useful route to identify and characterize reliable counterparts to high-redshift far-IR-bright galaxies, complementing what is possible via deep radio imaging., Accepted, ApJS Spitzer Special Issue. Full resolution version at http://www.roe.ac.uk/~rji/ivison_letter.ps.gz