No Arabic abstract
Despite the existence of well-defined relationships between cold gas and star formation, there is evidence that some galaxies contain large amounts of HI that do not form stars efficiently. By systematically assessing the link between HI and star formation within a sample of galaxies with extremely high HI masses (log M_HI/M_sun > 10), we uncover a population of galaxies with an unexpected combination of high HI masses and low specific star formation rates that exists primarily at stellar masses greater than log M_*/M_sun ~ 10.5. We obtained HI maps of 20 galaxies in this population to understand the distribution of the HI and the physical conditions in the galaxies that could be suppressing star formation in the presence of large quantities of HI. We find that all of the galaxies we observed have low HI surface densities in the range in which inefficient star formation is common. The low HI surface densities are likely the main cause of the low sSFRs, but there is also some evidence that AGN or bulges contribute to the suppression of star formation. The samples agreement with the global star formation law highlights its usefulness as a tool for understanding galaxies that do not always follow expected relationships.
We present first results of the study of a set of exceptional HI sources identified in the 40% ALFALFA extragalactic HI survey catalog alpha.40 as being both HI massive (M_HI > 10^10 Msun) and having high gas fractions for their stellar masses: the HIghMass galaxy sample. We analyze UV- and optical-broadband and Halpha images to understand the nature of their relatively underluminous disks in optical and to test whether their high gas fractions can be tracked to higher dark matter halo spin parameters or late gas accretion. Estimates of their star formation rates (SFRs) based on SED-fitting agree within uncertainties with the Halpha luminosity inferred SFRs. The HII region luminosity functions have standard slopes at the luminous end. The global SFRs demonstrate that the HIghMass galaxies exhibit active ongoing star formation (SF) with moderate SF efficiency, but relative to normal spirals, a lower integrated SFR in the past. Because the SF activity in these systems is spread throughout their extended disks, they have overall lower SFR surface densities and lower surface brightness in the optical bands. Relative to normal disk galaxies, the majority of HIghMass galaxies have higher Halpha equivalent widths and are bluer in their outer disks, implying an inside-out disk growth scenario. Downbending double exponential disks are more frequent than upbending disks among the gas-rich galaxies, suggesting that SF thresholds exist in the downbending disks, probably as a result of concentrated gas distribution.
Using data taken as part of the Bluedisk project we study the connection between neutral hydrogen (HI) in the environment of spiral galaxies and that in the galaxies themselves. We measure the total HI mass present in the environment in a statistical way by studying the distribution of noise peaks in the HI data cubes obtained for 40 galaxies observed with WSRT. We find that galaxies whose HI mass fraction is high relative to standard scaling relations have an excess HI mass in the surrounding environment as well. Gas in the environment consists of gas clumps which are individually below the detection limit of our HI data. These clumps may be hosted by small satellite galaxies andor be the high-density peaks of a more diffuse gas distribution in the inter-galactic medium. We interpret this result as an indication for a picture in which the HI-rich central galaxies accrete gas from an extended gas reservoir present in their environment.
We present a sample of 91 HI galaxies with little or no star formation and discuss the analysis of the integral field unit (IFU) spectra of 28 of these galaxies. We identified HI galaxies from the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey Catalog (HICAT) with Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) colours consistent with low specific star formation (< 10$^{-10.4}$ yr$^{-1}$), and obtained optical IFU spectra with the Wide-Field Spectrograph (WiFeS). Visual inspection of the PanSTARRS, Dark Energy Survey, and Carnegie-Irvine imaging of 62 galaxies reveals that at least 32 galaxies in the sample have low levels of star formation, primarily in arms/rings. New IFU spectra of 28 of these galaxies reveal 3 galaxies with central star formation, 1 galaxy with low-ionisation nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs), 20 with extended low-ionisation emission-line regions (LIERs) and 4 with high excitation Seyfert (Sy) emission. From the spectroscopic analysis of HI-selected galaxies with little star formation, we conclude that 75% of this population are LINERs/LIERs.
The HI in galaxies often extends past their conventionally defined optical extent. I report results from our team which has been probing low intensity star formation in outer disks using imaging in H-alpha and ultraviolet. Using a sample of hundreds of HI selected galaxies, we confirm that outer disk HII regions and extended UV disks are common. Hence outer disks are not dormant but are dimly forming stars. Although the ultraviolet light in galaxies is more centrally concentrated than the HI, the UV/HI ratio (the Star Formation Efficiency) is nearly constant, with a slight dependency on surface brightness. This result is well accounted for in a model where disks maintain a constant stability parameter Q. This model also accounts for how the ISM and star formation are distributed in the bright parts of galaxies, and how HI appears to trace the distribution of dark matter in galaxy outskirts.
We present and explore the resolved atomic hydrogen (HI) content of 13 HI-rich and late-type dominated groups denoted `Choirs. We quantify the HI content of the Choir galaxies with respect to the median of the HI-mass fraction ($f_{textrm{HI}}$) of their grandparent HIPASS sample. We find that the HI mass fraction of the Choir galaxies is dispersed around the HIPASS median in the range $-1.4 leq Delta f_{textrm{HI}}textrm{[dex]}leq 0.7$, from HI-excess to HI-deficient galaxy regime. The HI-excess/HI-deficient galaxies contain more/less than 2.5 times their expected HI content with respect to the HIPASS median. We show and discuss that the environmental processing in Choirs occurs via tidal stripping and galaxy mergers. Our analysis suggests that tidal stripping contributes to the loss of the HI, while galaxy mergers contribute to the enhancement of the HI. Exploring the mid-infrared properties of Choir galaxies we find possible environmental processing in only nine Choir galaxies, which indicates that environmental processing is more perceptible in the HI content than the mid-infrared properties. Moreover, we find that environmental processing occurs in Choir groups regardless of their global environment, whether they are in isolation or in proximity to the denser structures, such as cosmic web filaments. We explore possible scenarios of the Choirs evolution, taking into account their HI content, velocity dispersion, crossing time and their global environment. We conclude that the most likely evolution for the majority of Choir groups is that they will become more compact as their members undergo multiple HI-rich mergers.