An Integral Field Spectroscopic Survey of Luminous and Ultra-luminous Infrared Galaxies

摘要

We are carrying out a project devoted to study the internal struc-ture of a representative sample of about 70 low-redshift LIRGs and ULIRGs using several optical and near-IR IFS facilities. Here we present the main char-acteristics of this project, and discuss recent results derived from optical data obtained with the VIMOS / VLT instrument. In particular, we comment on the 2D kinematics of the ionized and neutral gas for two prototypical LIRGs. We also discuss the excitation conditions in the extra-nuclear extended regions in LIRGs in terms of fundamental properties of the systems, such as their luminosity and dynamical status (isolated, pairs, or merger remnants). We found that the interaction process itself, more than a super-wind caused by the star formation, seems to be the main origin of the shocks in the extended extra-nuclear regions of interacting and merging systems.