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Title:
The Oxygen Abundances of Luminous and Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
Authors:
Rupke, David S. N.; Veilleux, Sylvain; Baker, Andrew J.
Affiliation:
AA(Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421 ), AB(Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2421 ), AC(Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8019)
Publication:
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 674, Issue 1, pp. 172-193. (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
02/2008
Origin:
UCP
ApJ Keywords:
Galaxies: Abundances, Galaxies: Evolution, Galaxies: Interactions, Galaxies: ISM, Galaxies: Kinematics and Dynamics, Infrared: Galaxies
Abstract Copyright:
(c) 2008: The American Astronomical Society
DOI:
10.1086/522363
Bibliographic Code:
2008ApJ...674..172R

Abstract

Luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs) dominate the star formation rate budget of the universe at z>~1, yet no local measurements of their heavy-element abundances exist. We measure nuclear or near-nuclear oxygen abundances in a sample of 100 star-forming LIRGs and ULIRGs using new, previously published, and archival spectroscopy of strong emission lines (including [O II] λλ3726, 3729) in galaxies with redshifts <z>~0.1. When compared to local emission-line galaxies of similar luminosity and mass (using the near-infrared luminosity-metallicity and mass-metallicity relations), we find that LIRGs and ULIRGs are underabundant by a factor of 2 on average. As a corollary, LIRGs and ULIRGs also have smaller effective yields. We conclude that the observed underabundance results from the combination of a decrease of abundance with increasing radius in the progenitor galaxies and strong, interaction- or merger-induced gas inflow into the galaxy nucleus. This conclusion demonstrates that local abundance scaling relations are not universal, a fact that must be accounted for when interpreting abundances earlier in the universe's history, when merger-induced star formation was the dominant mode. We use our local sample to compare to high-redshift samples and assess abundance evolution in LIRGs and ULIRGs. We find that abundances in these systems increased by ~0.2 dex from z~0.6 to z~0.1. Evolution from z~2 submillimeter galaxies to z~0.1 ULIRGs also appears to be present, although uncertainty due to spectroscopic limitations is large.
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