By considering the radiative force by a circumnuclear starburst as well as an AGN, we analyze the equilibrium configuration and the stability of dusty gas in the circumnuclear regions. It is found that the radiative force by an intensive starburst can support a stable gaseous wall with a scale-height of several hundred parsecs. Moreover, by taking the simple stellar evolution in the starburst i...

We present results on mid-IR (5–16µm) spectral imaging of a sequence of interacting galaxies, observed by ISOCAM. The galaxies are part of the well known Toomre's " merger sequence " which was defined as a sample of galaxies depicting progressive snapshots in the time evolution of a merging event. To trace the intensity of the radiation field in a starburst, we use the ratio of the 15µm to 7µm ...

We present photometric multiband spectral energy distributions for the GRB host galaxies: GRB 971214, GRB 970508, GRB 980613, GRB 980703 and GRB 990123 obtained with the 6-m telescope of SAO RAS. Using SEDs for the starburst galaxies, we made estimates of K-correction values and estimated the absolute magnitudes of the GRB host galaxies within the range of cosmological parameters. The compariso...

The infrared spectra of starburst galaxies are dominated by the low-excitation lines of [NeII] and [SIII], and the stellar populations deduced from these spectra appear to lack stars larger than about 35 M⊙. The only exceptions to this result until now were low metallicity dwarf galaxies. We report our analysis of the midinfrared spectra obtained with IRS on Spitzer of the starburst galaxy NGC ...

Radio continuum observations are a probe of star formation in galaxies, and are unaffected by dust extinction. Observations of the distant rich cluster Cl 0939+4713 have detected radio galaxies classified as post-starburst (“k+a”) on the basis of their optical spectra, and presumably this situation arises from heavily dust-obscured star formation (Smail et al. 1999). We present the results of a...

We present new VLA C-configuration H i imaging of the Lyα-emitting starburst galaxies Tol 1924−416 and IRAS08339+6517. The effective resolution probes neutral gas structures larger than 4.7 kpc in Tol 1924−416, and larger than 8.1 kpc in IRAS08339+6517. Both systems are revealed to be tidally interacting: Tol 1924−416 with ESO338−IG04B (6.6 = 72 kpc minimum separation), and IRAS08339+6517 with ...

Low-luminosity AGN (with LX < 1 × 10 42 ergs s) far outnumber ordinary AGN, and are therefore perhaps more relevant to our understanding of AGN phenomena and the relationship between AGN and host galaxies. Many normal galaxies harbor LINER and starburst nuclei, which, together with LLAGN, are a class of “low-activity” galaxies that have a number of surprisingly similar X-ray characteristics, de...

The peak star formation intensity in starburst galaxies does not vary significantly from the local universe to redshift z∼6. We arrive at this conclusion through new surface brightness measurements of 47 starburst galaxies at z≃5−6, doubling the redshift range for such observations. These galaxies are spectroscopically confirmed in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) through the GRism ACS progra...

Starburst galaxies are powered by massive stars. These stars dominate the heating and enrichment with heavy elements of the interstellar medium, gas out of which new stars form. Thus, high-mass stars, and in consequence starburst galaxies, are an important (in some cases the dominant) energy source for the evolution of galaxies and the universe. In this contribution I review techniques to deriv...

We explore the formation of dusty gas walls induced by a circumnuclear starburst around an active galactic nucleus (AGN). We concentrate our attention on the role of the radiation force by a starburst as well as an AGN, where the effects of optical depth of dusty gas are taken into consideration. First, we solve the hydrostatic equations in spherical symmetry coupled with the frequency-dependen...