No Arabic abstract
We present 21 cm HI line observations of 5x1 square degrees centered on the local Abell cluster 1367 obtained as part of the Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey. One hundred sources are detected (79 new HI measurements and 50 new redshifts), more than half belonging to the cluster core and its infalling region. Combining the HI data with SDSS optical imaging we show that our HI selected sample follows scaling relations similar to the ones usually observed in optically selected samples. Interestingly all galaxies in our sample appear to have nearly the same baryon fraction independently of their size, surface brightness and luminosity. The most striking difference between HI and optically selected samples resides in their large scale distribution: whereas optical and X-ray observations trace the cluster core very well, in HI there is almost no evidence of the presence of the cluster. Some implications on the determination of the cluster luminosity function and HI distribution for samples selected at different wavelength are also discussed.
We present VLA D-array HI observations of the RSCG42 and FGC1287 galaxy groups, in the outskirts of the Abell 1367 cluster. These groups are projected ~ 1.8 and 2.7 Mpc west from the cluster centre. The Arecibo Galaxy Environment survey provided evidence for HI extending over as much as 200kpc in both groups. Our new, higher resolution observations reveal that the complex HI features detected by Arecibo are in reality two extraordinary long HI tails extending for ~160 and 250 kpc, respectively, i.e., among the longest HI structures ever observed in groups of galaxies. Although in the case of RSCG42 the morphology and dynamics of the HI tail, as well as the optical properties of the group members, support a low-velocity tidal interaction scenario, less clear is the origin of the unique features associated with FGC1287. This galaxy displays an exceptionally long dog leg HI tail and the large distance from the X-ray emitting region of Abell 1367 makes a ram-pressure stripping scenario highly unlikely. At the same time a low-velocity tidal interaction seems unable to explain the extraordinary length of the tail and the lack of any sign of disturbance in the optical properties of FGC1287. An intriguing possibility could be that this galaxy might have recently experienced a high-speed interaction with another member of the Coma-Abell 1367 Great Wall. We searched for the interloper responsible for this feature and, although we find a possible candidate, we show that without additional observations it is impossible to settle this issue. While the mechanism responsible for this extraordinary HI tail remains to be determined, our discovery highlights how little we know about environmental effects in galaxy groups.
We present a dynamical analysis of the central ~1.3 square degrees of the cluster of galaxies Abell 1367, based on 273 redshift measurements (of which 119 are news). From the analysis of the 146 confirmed cluster members we derive a significantly non-Gaussian velocity distribution, with a mean location C_{BI} = 6484+/-81 km/s and a scale S_{BI} = 891+/-58 km/s. The cluster appears elongated from the North-West to the South-East with two main density peaks associated with two substructures. The North-West subcluster is probably in the early phase of merging into the South-East substructure (~ 0.2 Gyr before core crossing). A dynamical study of the two subclouds points out the existence of a group of star-forming galaxies infalling into the core of the South-East subcloud and suggests that two other groups are infalling into the NW and SE subclusters respectively. These three subgroups contain a higher fraction of star-forming galaxies than the cluster core, as expected during merging events. Abell 1367 appears as a young cluster currently forming at the intersection of two filaments.
We have used the Arecibo L-band Feed Array to map three regions, each of 5 square degrees, around the isolated galaxies NGC 1156, UGC 2082, and NGC 5523. In the vicinity of these galaxies we have detected two dwarf companions: one near UGC 2082, previously discovered by ALFALFA, and one near NGC 1156, discovered by this project and reported in an earlier paper. This is significantly fewer than the 15.4 $^{+1.7}_{-1.5}$ that would be expected from the field HI mass function from ALFALFA or the 8.9 $pm$ 1.2 expected if the HI mass function from the Local Group applied in these regions. The number of dwarf companions detected is, however, consistent with a flat or declining HI mass function as seen by a previous, shallower, HI search for companions to isolated galaxies.We attribute this difference in Hi mass functions to the different environments in which they are measured. This agrees with the general observation that lower ratios of dwarf to giant galaxies are found in lower density environments.
The results of Suzaku observations of the outskirts of Abell 3395 including a large-scale structure filament toward Abell 3391 are presented. We measured temperature and abundance distributions from the southern outskirt of Abell 3395 to the north at the virial radius, where a filament structure has been found in the former X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect observations between Abell 3391 and 3395. The overall temperature structure is consistent with the universal profile proposed by Okabe et al.(2014) for relaxed clusters except for the filament region. A hint of the ICM heating is found between the two clusters, which might be due to the interaction of them in the early phase of a cluster merger. Although we obtained relatively low metal abundance of $Z=0.169^{+0.164+0.009+0.018 }_{-0.150-0.004-0.015 }$ solar, where the first, second, and third errors are statistical, cosmic X-ray background systematic, and non X-ray background systematic, respectively, at the virial radius in the filament, our results are still consistent with the former results of other clusters ($Z sim 0.3$ solar) within errors. Therefore, our results are also consistent with the early enrichment scenario. We estimated Compton $y$ parameters only from X-ray results in the region between Abell 3391 and 3395 assuming a simple geometry. They are smaller than the previous SZ results with Planck satellite. The difference could be attributed to a more elaborate geometry such as a filament inclined to the line-of-sight direction, or underestimation of the X-ray temperature because of the unresolved multi-temperature structures or undetected hot X-ray emission of the shock heated gas.
The Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey (AGES) is one of several HI surveys utilising the new Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFA) fitted to the 305m radio telescope at Arecibo. The survey is specifically designed to investigate various galactic environments to higher sensitivity, higher velocity resolution and higher spatial resolution than previous fully sampled, 21 cm multibeam surveys. The emphasis is on making detailed observations of nearby objects although the large system bandwidth (100 MHz) will allow us to quantify the HI properties over a large instantaneous velocity range. In this paper we describe the survey and its goals and present the results from the precursor observations of a 5 degree x 1 degree region containing the nearby (~10 Mpc) NGC 628 group. We have detected all the group galaxies in the region including the low mass (M{HI}~10^7Mo) dwarf, dw0137+1541 (Briggs, 1986). The fluxes and velocities for these galaxies compare well with previously published data. There is no intra-group neutral gas detected down to a limiting column density of 2x10^{18}cm^{-2}. In addition to the group galaxies we have detected 22 galaxies beyond the NGC 628 group, 9 of which are previously uncatalogued.(Abridged)