The Starburst-AGN Connection in Local, Infrared Radio Galaxies

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

AST 0206262 Evans, Aaron Almost all nearby massive galaxies are believed to have quiescent supermassive nuclear black holes. These dense, dark objects are remnants of prior, energetic events which undoubtedly gave rise to periods of active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity similar to what is observed in nearby radio galaxies and quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). Further, recently measured correlations between the black hole mass and the stellar bulge mass in nearby galaxies indicates that circumnuclear star formation must accompany black hole mass accretion. This research will make use of optical, near-infrared, (sub)millimeter, and radio technology to study the star formation and AGN activity in a sample of infrared (IR) luminous radio galaxies with redshifts 0.02- 0.2. These galaxies are a subset of the infrared luminous galaxy class, most of which are observed to be closely interacting/merging galaxies with clear evidence of both star formation and AGN activity; both phenomena are likely fueled by molecular gas. Single-dish and interferometric millimeter observations of carbon monoxide (CO), near-infrared imaging of recombination lines and H2, and VLA observations of the radio jets will be carried out. This program will elucidate the star formation rate, the amount of hot versus cold gas in the host galaxies, and the relation of jet emission to the stellar and molecular gas distributions. Studying these transitional objects offers one of the best opportunities to explore the connections between starbursts and active galactic nuclei.