Properties and environments of [Ultra] Luminous Infrared Galaxy candidates around the south ecliptic pole

Małgorzata Bankowicz, Aleksander Herzig, Agnieszka Pollo, Katarzyna Małek and ADF-S Team

[Ultra] Luminous Infrared Galaxies ([U]LIRGs) are a rare class of galaxies whose exact mechanisms of activity and very high dust luminosity are still under debate, with the mixed role of galaxy mergers, starburst and AGN to be clarified. For 39 [U]LIRGs discovered in the AKARI Deep Field-South we attempted to evaluate galactic density in their vicinity based on the Digital Sky Survey (DSS) data and dedicated follow-up observations by the SAAO telescopes. We concluded that ULIRGs prefer environments with high but not extreme density while LIRGs are more often found also in denser environments. It may imply that ULIRGs appear most often in the environment of the cluster outskirts, where galaxy mergers are the most probable, and it supports the hypothesis that mergers play the crucial role in their activation.

Proceedings of the Polish Astronomical Society, vol. 7, 233-238 (2018)

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