Spitzer mid-IR spectroscopy of infrared-luminous galaxies at z ∼ 1-2

I discuss Spitzer GO programs aimed at studying the mid-IR. spectral properties of IR-luminous galaxies at high z. I present the IRS lowresolution, mid-lR spectra of a sample of 52 sources from our G01 medium size program. We found that similar to 75% of the sample are at z similar to 1.5 - 2.6, with redshifts determined based on features including PAH emission and silicate absorption in the mid-IR spectra. This dataset revealed the first direct evidence that PAH features are already a significant component of a dusty galaxy's spectrum as early as z = 2. Among the 52 targets, one third are starbursts at z - 2 with strong PAH emission, and two thirds are AGN-dominated systems with strong silicate absorption and weak or no PAH emission. The bulk of the sample are dusty, infrared-luminous galaxies at z similar to 1 - 3 with estimated L-bol similar to 10(13) L circle dot. At such a high luminosity, a significant fraction of our sample have dust-obscured, strong AGN components. I will discuss the implication for 24 mu m-selected, 1 mJy or brighter samples. I also present the ground-based near-IR/optical spectroscopy and 1.2 mm continuum followup observations of this sample. The Keck spectroscopic redshifts confirm the redshift measurements based oil the mid-IR spectra. Since half of our sample are optically faint sources with R >= 25.5 mag (Vega), our results demonstrate the potential of using mid-infrared spectroscopy, especially the aromatic and silicate features produced by dust grains, to directly probe optically faint and infrared-luminous populations at high redshift.