Far-Infrared Census of Starburst-Seyfert Connection

Abstract

Far-infrared flux densities are newly extracted from the IRAS database for the RSA and CfA complete samples of Seyfert galaxies. These data are used to classify the Seyfert galaxies into those where the far-infrared continuum emission is dominated by the active galactic nucleus (AGN), circumnuclear starburst, or host galaxy. While AGN-dominant objects consist of comparable numbers of Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies, starburst- and host-dominant objects consist preferentially of Seyfert 2 galaxies. Thus, in addition to the dusty torus, the circumnuclear starburst region and host galaxy are important in hiding the broad-line region. Morphologically, starburst-dominant Seyfert galaxies are of later types and more strongly interacting than AGN-dominant Seyfert galaxies. In a later-type galaxy, the AGN central engine has a lower Eddington luminosity, and the gaseous content is higher. The gas is efficiently supplied to the starburst via a galaxy-galaxy interaction. Morphologies of host-dominant Seyfert galaxies are of various types. Since starbursts in Seyfert galaxies are older than those in classical starburst galaxies, we propose an evolution from starburst to starburst-dominant Seyfert to host-dominant Seyfert for a late-type galaxy. An evolution from AGN-dominant Seyfert to host-dominant Seyfert is proposed for an early-type galaxy. These sequences have durations of a few x 10^8 yr and occur repeatedly within a galaxy during its evolution from a late type to an early type.Comment: 27 pages (AASTeX 5.0), 3 ps files for 6 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa