1999/12/22 by A. Evans, Evans, A. S., J. Surace +5
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Advanced Measurement and Metrology Techniques #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9912460
openalex publication_date 1999/12/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Millimeter (CO) observations of 5 double-nucleus ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIG) mergers are presented. With nuclear separations of 3-5 kpc, these galaxies are in the ``intermediate'' stages of the merger process. A preliminary comparison of the distribution of molecular gas (the likely fuel source for both starbursts and active galactic nuclei: AGN) shows a tendency for molecular gas to be associated with the AGN nucleus of ULIGs with ``warm'', Seyfert-like infrared colors (f25 microns/f60 microns >~ 0.20) and associated with both stellar nuclei of ULIGs with ``cool'' infrared colors (f25 microns /f60 microns < 0.2). Studies of ULIGs with a wide range of nuclear separations using the high resolution and increased sensitivity of ALMA will provide a larger statistical sample with which the gas distribution, molecular gas masses, and densities can be determined as a function of the evolutionary stage, starburst and AGN activity, and lookback time.