[2608.14473] OH Line Detections in Southern Galaxies of the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Astrophysics > Astrophysics of Galaxies arXiv:2608.14473 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 14 Aug 2026] Title: OH Line Detections in Southern Galaxies of the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample Authors: Han Zhao , Zhongzu Wu , Bo Zhang , Timur Mufakharov , Yongjun Chen , Zhiqiang Shen , Yulia Sotnikova View a PDF of the paper titled OH Line Detections in Southern Galaxies of the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample, by Han Zhao and 6 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We present a systematic study of OH main-line emission and absorption in 186 southern galaxies from the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample, using archival MeerKAT snapshot data. OH features are detected in 38 galaxies, including eight with OH maser emission (three new) and 30 showing OH absorption, mostly unreported previously. Four absorption systems exhibit weak OH emission superposed on strong absorption. OH-emitting regions are generally more compact than the associated radio continuum. Most absorption profiles are well fit by two Gaussian components (1667 and 1665 MHz), with an average integrated line ratio of $\sim$1.5. LIRGs show an OH emission detection rate of ~13\%, versus significantly lower rates in non-LIRGs. For sources with radio continuum flux densities >20 mJy, OH absorption detection rates reach ~36\% (LIRGs) and ~27\% (non-LIRGs), while no OH absorption features were detected among sources with lower radio continuum flux densities. This suggests that sufficient background continuum is likely an important factor for the detection of OH absorption. Detected OH emitters follow the empirical $L_{\rm OH}$--$L_{\rm FIR}$ relation, consistent with far-infrared pumping, while non-detections show upper limits below the relation. No significant differences are found between OH absorbers and non-detections in infrared luminosity or radio continuum compactness. Stacked spectra of non-detections reveal no significant OH features, suggesting that sensitivity and orientation alone do not fully explain the absence of absorption. In contrast, mid-infrared colors (e.g., W2--W3) and q_TIR differ between the two populations. OH absorption galaxies occupy an intermediate regime in L_HCN/L_CO between OH megamasers and non-detections, implying that OH absorption detectability is linked to dense molecular gas conditions, with extreme star formation potentially suppressing its occurrence. Comments: 33 pages,14 figures, accepted by ApJ Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) Cite as: arXiv:2608.14473 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2608.14473v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.14473 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Zhongzu Wu [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:53:17 UTC (2,735 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled OH Line Detections in Southern Galaxies of the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample, by Han Zhao and 6 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: astro-ph.GA < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: astro-ph References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... 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