The IRAS 1-Jy Survey of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies: II. Optical Spectroscopy

Abstract

This is the second paper in a series discussing the properties of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs: L_ir > 10^{12} L_sun; Ho = 75 km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1} and qo = 0.0) from the 1-Jy sample of Kim (1995). This paper presents the first results of a spectroscopic survey at optical wavelengths of a randomly selected subset of 45 ULIGs from Kim & Sanders (1997). These new data are combined with previous data from Veilleux et al. (1995) to determine the spectral properties of luminous infrared galaxies (LIGs) with L_ir ~= 10^{10.5}-10^{13} L_sun. We find that the fraction of Seyfert galaxies among LIGs increases dramatically above L_ir ~= 10^{12.3} L_sun --- nearly half of the galaxies with L_ir > 10^{12.3} L_sun present Seyfert characteristics. Many of the optical properties of these Seyfert galaxies are consistent with the presence of a genuine active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the core of these objects. The continuum colors and strengths of the stellar H-beta and MgIb features in and out of the nuclei of ULIGs indicate that star formation has recently (~10^7 yr) taken place in the nuclear and circumnuclear regions of many of these objects. As expected, photoionization by hot stars appears to be the dominant source of ionization in the objects with H II region-like spectra. Evidence is presented that the ionization source in infrared-selected galaxies with nuclear LINER-like spectra (38% of the ULIGs in our sample) is likely to be shocks or of stellar origins rather than an AGN. Shock ionization associated with starburst-driven outflows may also explain the LINER-like emission detected outside the nuclei of some galaxies.