What is driving the evolution of the far-infrared radio correlation?

Abstract

Far infrared-radio correlation represents a linear relationship between far-infrared (FIR) and radio emission in star-forming galaxies. Previous observations have confirmed that this correlation is maintained over a large range of redshift and does not evolve, although a small dispersion is present. However, some of more recent observations at high redshift have shown the opposite. The question that arises is - what is driving this evolution? In this paper we investigate the possibility that galaxy morphology is the answer to this question. A sample of 37 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) is analyzed. The observation and morphological class of these galaxies has previously been published. We examined FIR-radio correlation in galaxies of different morphological type in this sample and found that for star-forming disk galaxies correlation is stable and does not evolve and for irregular and interacting galaxies we find some hints of evolution.

Keywords

• cosmic rays
• galaxy evolution
• interactions of galaxies
• infrared: galaxies
• radio continuum: galaxies