2007ApJ...662L..59F

We present mid/far-infrared photometry of nine FeLoBAL QSOs, taken using the Spitzer Space Telescope. All nine objects are extremely bright in the infrared, with rest-frame 1-1000 µm luminosities comparable to those of ultraluminous infrared galaxies. Furthermore, a significant fraction of the infrared emission from many, and possibly all, of the sample is likely to arise from star formation, with star formation rates of the order of several hundred solar masses per year. We combine these results with previous work to propose that FeLoBALs mark galaxies and QSOs in which an extremely luminous starburst is approaching its end, and in which a rapidly accreting supermassive black hole is in the last stages of casting off its dust cocoon. FeLoBAL signatures in high-redshift QSOs and galaxies may thus be an efficient way of selecting sources at a critical point in their evolution.