Tracing the Coevolution Path of Supermassive Black Holes and Spheroids with AKARI-selected Ultraluminous IR Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts

Abstract

Abstract We present the stellar population and ionized-gas outflow properties of ultraluminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs) at z = 0.1–1.0 that are selected from the AKARI far-IR all-sky survey. We construct a catalog of 1077 ULIRGs to examine feedback effects after major mergers. Of the 1077 ULIRGs, 202 are spectroscopically identified by SDSS and Subaru/FOCAS observations. Thanks to the deeper depth and higher resolution of AKARI compared to the previous Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) survey and reliable identification from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mid-IR pointing, the sample is unique in identifying optically faint (i ∼ 20) IR-bright galaxies, which could be missed in previous surveys. A self-consistent spectrum and broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) decomposition method, which constrains stellar population properties in SED modeling based on spectral fitting results, has been employed for 149 ULIRGs whose optical continua are dominated by host galaxies. They are massive galaxies ( –1012 M ) associated with intense star formation activities (SFR ∼ 200–2000 M yr−1). The sample covers a range of active galactic nucleus (AGN) bolometric luminosity of 1010–1013 L , and the outflow velocity measured from the [O iii] 5007 Å line shows a correlation with AGN luminosity. Eight galaxies show extremely fast outflows with velocity up to 1500–2000 km s−1. However, the coexistence of vigorous starbursts and strong outflows suggests the star formation has not been quenched during the ULIRG phase. By deriving the stellar mass and mass fraction of the young stellar population, we find no significant discrepancies between stellar properties of ULIRGs with weak and powerful AGNs. The results are not consistent with the merger-induced evolutionary scenario, which predicts that star formation–dominated ULIRGs will show smaller stellar masses and younger stellar populations compared to AGN-dominated ULIRGs.