A far-infrared spectroscopic survey of intermediate redshift (ultra) luminous infrared galaxies

We present Herschel far-IR photometry and spectroscopy as well as ground-based CO observations of an intermediate redshift (0.21 ≤ z ≤ 0.88) sample of Herschel-selected (ultra)-luminous infrared galaxies (L IR > 1011.5 L ⊙). With these measurements, we trace the dust continuum, far-IR atomic line emission, in particular [C II] 157.7 μm, as well as the molecular gas of z ∼ 0.3 luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs and ULIRGs) and perform a detailed investigation of the interstellar medium of the population. We find that the majority of Herschel-selected intermediate redshift (U)LIRGs have L C II/L FIR ratios that are a factor of about 10 higher than that of local ULIRGs and comparable to that of local normal and high-z star-forming galaxies. Using our sample to bridge local and high-z [C II] observations, we find that the majority of galaxies at all redshifts and all luminosities follow an L C II-L FIR relation with a slope of unity, from which local ULIRGs and high- z active-galactic-nucleus-dominated sources are clear outliers. We also confirm that the strong anti-correlation between the L C II/L FIR ratio and the far-IR color L 60/L 100 observed in the local universe holds over a broad range of redshifts and luminosities, in the sense that warmer sources exhibit lower L C II/L FIR at any epoch. Intermediate redshift ULIRGs are also characterized by large molecular gas reservoirs and by lower star formation efficiencies compared to that of local ULIRGs. The high L C II/L FIR ratios, the moderate star formation efficiencies (L IR/ or L IR/), and the relatively low dust temperatures of our sample (which are also common characteristics of high-z star-forming galaxies with ULIRG-like luminosities) indicate that the evolution of the physical properties of (U)LIRGs between the present day and z > 1 is already significant by z ∼ 0.3.