PHOTON FEEDBACK: SCREENING AND THE EDDINGTON LIMIT

Bright star-forming galaxies radiate well below their Eddington limits. The value of the flux-mean opacity that mediates the radiation force onto matter is orders of magnitude smaller than the UV or optical dust opacity. On empirical grounds, it is shown that high-redshift ULIRGs radiate at two orders of magnitude below their Eddington limits, while the local starbursters M82 and Arp 220 radiate at a few percent of their Eddington limits. A model for the radiative transfer of UV and optical light in dust-rich environments is considered. Radiation pressure on dust does not greatly affect the large-scale gas dynamics of star-forming galaxies.