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S. Guiles, D. Devost, J. R. Houck (Cornell University)
Infrared line ratios are especially well suited to probe the physical conditions in starburst galaxies because they are sensitive to the hardness of the stellar ionizing radiation and are less affected by interstellar extinction than lines at shorter wavelengths. We compare IR line ratios in starburst galaxies obtained by the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS)* on the Spitzer Space Telescope with theoretical models. The models use the STARBURST99 code to generate a spectral energy distribution of a stellar cluster which then serves as the input to the MAPPINGS III photoionization code. We explore various model parameters such as the initial mass function and star formation mode, and we present preliminary results for a number of galaxies in our sample.
This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under NASA contract 1407. Support for this work was provided by NASA through Contract Number 1257184 issued by JPL/Caltech.
* The IRS was a collaborative venture between Cornell University and Ball Aerospace Corporation funded by NASA through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Ames Research Center.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.