Correlation between luminosities of OH megamasers and IR luminosities of their host galaxies

Abstract

In this paper, the correlation between the luminosities of OH megamasers and the infrared luminosities of their host galaxies is examined for a rather large sample of 66 OH megamasers, and the relation log L( OH) = 1.71 log L( IR) − 17.67, or, L( OH) ∝ [ L( IR)] 1.71 is obtained. This result is intermediate between the relation L( OH) ∝ [ L( IR)] 2 obtained by Baan (1989) and the relation L( OH) ∝ [ L( IR)] 1.38 obtained by Kandalian (1996). Because the sample is the largest so far, our result should be closer to reality. We divided the 66 OH megamasers into two groups, one of 14 with luminosities less than 10 2 L ⊙, and one of 52 with luminosities greater than 10 2 L ⊙. It is found that for the first group we have the correlation L( OH) ∝ [ L( IR)] 1.43, close to the result of Kandalian (1996), and for the second group we have L( OH) ∝ [ L( IR)] 2, the same as found by Baan (1989).