Triggered or self-regulated star formation within intermediate redshift luminous infrared galaxies. I. Morphologies and spectral energy distributions

As part of the Center for Adaptive Optics (AO) Treasury Survey (CATS) we imaged a set of 15 intermediate redshift (z similar to 0.8) luminous infrared (IR) galaxies (LIRGs) with the Keck Laser Guide Star (LGS) AO facility. These galaxies were selected from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) southern field, allowing us to combine the high spatial resolution Hubble Space Telescope optical (B, V, i, and z-bands) images with our near-infrared (K'-band) images to study the LIRG morphologies and spatially resolved spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Two thirds of the LIRGs are disk galaxies, with only one third showing some evidence for interactions, minor, or major mergers. In contrast with local LIRG disks (which are primarily barred systems), only 10% of the LIRG disks in our sample contain a prominent bar. While the optical bands tend to show a significant point-like substructure, indicating distributed star formation, the AO K-band images tend to be smooth. They lack point-like structures to a K similar to 23.5 limit. This places an upper bound on the number of red super giants per blue knot at less than 4000. The SEDs of the LIRGs are consistent with distributed dusty star formation, as exhibited by optical to IR colors redder than allowed by old stellar populations alone. This effect is most pronounced in the galaxy cores, possibly indicating central star formation. We also observed a set of 11 intermediate redshift comparison galaxies, selected to be non-ellipticals with apparent K-band magnitudes comparable to the LIRGs. The normal (non-LIRG) systems tended to have lower optical luminosity, lower stellar mass, and more irregular morphology than the LIRGs. Half of the normal galaxies have SEDs consistent with intermediate aged stellar populations and minimal dust. The other half show evidence for some dusty star formation, usually concentrated in their cores. Our work suggests that the LIRG disk galaxies are similar to large disk systems today, undergoing self-regulated star formation, only at 10-20 times higher rates.