Byurakan-IRAS galaxies as massive galaxies with nuclear and starburst activity

Abstract

Byurakan-IRAS Galaxies (BIG) (Mickaelian 1995) are the result of optical identifications of IRAS PSC sources at high-galactic latitudes using the First Byurakan Survey (FBS) low-dispersion spectra (Markarian et al. 1989). Among the 1577 targets, 1178 galaxies have been identified. Most are dusty spiral galaxies and there is a number of ULIRGs among these objects. Our spectroscopic observations, carried out with three telescopes (Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory 2.6m, Russian Special Astrophysical Observatory 6m and Observatoire de Haute Provence 1.93m; Mickaelian & Sargsyan 2010), for 172 galaxies, as well as the SDSS DR8 spectra for 83 galaxies make up the list of 255 spectroscopically studied BIG objects. The classification regarding activity type for narrow-line emission galaxies has been carried out using the diagnostic diagrams by Veilleux & Osterbrock (1987). All possible physical characteristics have been measured and/or calculated, including radial velocities and distances, angular and physical sizes, absolute magnitudes and luminosities (both optical and IR). IR luminosities and star-formation rates have been calculated from the IR fluxes (Duc et al. 1997).