No Arabic abstract
We present the results of ATCA HI line and 20-cm radio continuum observations of the galaxy Quartet NGC 6845. The HI emission extends over all four galaxies but can only be associated clearly with the two spiral galaxies, NGC 6845A and B, which show signs of strong tidal interaction. We derive a total HI mass of at least 1.8 x 10^10 Msun, most of which is associated with NGC 6845A, the largest galaxy of the group. We investigate the tidal interaction between NGC 6845A and B by studying the kinematics of distinct HI components and their relation to the known HII regions. No HI emission is detected from the two lenticular galaxies, NGC 6845C and D. A previously uncatalogued dwarf galaxy, ATCA J2001-4659, was detected 4.4 NE from NGC 6845B and has an HI mass of about 5 x 10^8 Msun. No HI bridge is visible between the group and its newly detected companion. Extended 20-cm radio continuum emission is detected in NGC 6845A and B as well as in the tidal bridge between the two galaxies. We derive star formation rates of 15 to 40 Msun/yr.
ATCA 21 cm HI observations of the rich galaxy cluster ACO 3627 in the Great Attractor region are presented. Three fields of 30 diameter located within one Abell radius of ACO 3627 were observed with a resolution of 15 and an rms noise of sim 1 mJy/beam. Only two galaxies were detected in these fields. We compare their HI distribution to new optical R-band images and discuss their velocity fields. The first galaxy is a gas-rich unperturbed spiral whereas the second shows a peculiar HI distribution. The estimated 3-sigma HI mass limit of our observations is sim 7 x 10^8 M_{odot} for a line width of 150 km s^{-1}. The non-detection of a considerable number of luminous spiral galaxies indicates that the spiral galaxies are HI deficient. The low detection rate is comparable to the HI deficient Coma cluster (Bravo-Alfaro et al. 2000). ACO 3627 is a bright X-ray cluster. We therefore suspect that ram pressure stripping is responsible for the HI deficiency of the bright cluster spirals.
We present the first interferometric blind HI survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster, which covers an area of 15 deg$^2$ out to the cluster $R_{vir}$. The survey has a resolution of 67x95 and 6.6 km$s^{-1}$ with a 3$sigma$ sensitivity of N(HI)~2x10$^{19}$ cm$^{-2}$ and MHI 2x10$^7$ M$_odot$. We detect 16 galaxies out of 200 spectroscopically confirmed Fornax cluster members. The detections cover ~3 orders of magnitude in HI mass, from 8x10$^6$ to 1.5x10$^{10}$ M$_odot$. They avoid the central, virialised region of the cluster both on the sky and in projected phase-space, showing that they are recent arrivals and that, in Fornax, HI is lost within a crossing time, ~2 Gyr. Half of these galaxies exhibit a disturbed HI morphology, including several cases of asymmetries, tails, offsets between HI and optical centres, and a case of a truncated HI disc suggesting that they have been interacting within or on their way to Fornax. Our HI detections are HI-poorer and form stars at a lower rate than non-cluster galaxies in the same $M_star$ range. Low mass galaxies are more strongly affected throughout their infall towards the cluster. The MHI/$M_star$ ratio of Fornax galaxies is comparable to that in the Virgo cluster. At fixed $M_star$, our HI detections follow the non-cluster relation between MHI and the star formation rate, and we argue that this implies that so far they have lost their HI on a timescale $gtrsim$1-2 Gyr. Deeper inside the cluster HI removal is likely to proceed faster, as confirmed by a population of HI-undetected but H$_2$-detected star-forming galaxies. Based on ALMA data, we find a large scatter in H$_2$-to-HI mass ratio, with several galaxies showing an unusually high ratio that is probably caused by faster HI removal. We identify an HI-rich subgroup of possible interacting galaxies dominated by NGC 1365, where pre-processing is likey to have taken place.
We present a survey of atomic hydrogen HI) emission in the direction of the Galactic Center conducted with the CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The survey covers the area -5 deg < l < +5, -5 deg < b <+5 deg over the velocity range -309 < v_{LSR} < 349 km/s with a velocity resolution of 1 km/s. The ATCA data are supplemented with data from the Parkes Radio Telescope for sensitivity to all angular scales larger than the 145 arcsec angular resolution of the survey. The mean rms brightness temperature across the field is 0.7 K, except near (l,b)=(0 deg, 0 deg) where it increases to ~2 K. This survey complements the Southern Galactic Plane Survey to complete the continuous coverage of the inner Galactic plane in HI at ~2 arcmin resolution. Here we describe the observations and analysis of this Galactic Center survey and present the final data product. Features such as Banias Clump 2, the far 3 kiloparsec arm and small high velocity clumps are briefly described.
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)
The NGC 5903 galaxy group is a nearby (~30 Mpc) system of ~30 members, dominated by the giant ellipticals NGC 5903 and NGC 5898. The group contains two unusual structures, a ~110 kpc long HI filament crossing NGC 5903, and a ~75 kpc wide diffuse, steep-spectrum radio source of unknown origin which overlaps NGC 5903 and appears to be partly enclosed by the HI filament. Using a combination of Chandra, XMM-Newton, GMRT and VLA observations, we detect a previously unknown ~0.65 keV intra-group medium filling the volume within 145 kpc of NGC 5903, and find a loop of enhanced X-ray emission extending ~35 kpc southwest from the galaxy, enclosing the brightest part of the radio source. The northern and eastern parts of this X-ray structure are also strongly correlated with the southern parts of the HI filament. We determine the spectral index of the bright radio emission to be $alpha_{150}^{612}$=1.03$pm$0.08, indicating a radiative age >360 Myr. We discuss the origin of the correlated radio, X-ray and HI structures, either through an interaction-triggered AGN outburst with enthalpy 1.8x10$^{57}$ erg, or via a high-velocity collision between a galaxy and the HI filament. While neither scenario provides a complete explanation, we find that an AGN outburst is the most likely source of the principal X-ray and radio structures. However, it is clear that galaxy interactions continue to play an important role in the development of this relatively highly evolved galaxy group. We also resolve the question of whether the group member galaxy ESO 514-3 hosts a double-lobed radio source, confirming that the source is a superposed background AGN.