The stellar and neutral hydrogen (HI) mass functions at z~0 are fundamental benchmarks for current models of galaxy evolution. A natural extension of these benchmarks is the two-dimensional distribution of galaxies in the plane spanned by stellar and
HI mass, which provides a more stringent test of simulations, as it requires the HI to be located in galaxies of the correct stellar mass. Combining HI data from the ALFALFA survey, with optical data from SDSS, we find a distinct envelope in the HI-to-stellar mass distribution, corresponding to an upper limit in the HI fraction that varies monotonically over five orders of magnitude in stellar mass. This upper envelope in HI fraction does not favour the existence of a significant population of dark galaxies with large amounts of gas but no corresponding stellar population. The envelope shows a break at a stellar mass of ~10^9 Msun, which is not reproduced by modern models of galaxy populations tracing both stellar and gas masses. The discrepancy between observations and models suggests a mass dependence in gas storage and consumption missing in current galaxy evolution prescriptions. The break coincides with the transition from galaxies with predominantly irregular morphology at low masses to regular disks at high masses, as well as the transition from cold to hot accretion of gas in simulations.
We present an analysis of the neutral hydrogen (HI) content and distribution of galaxies in groups as a function of their parent dark matter halo mass. The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey alpha.40 data release allows us, for the first time, to study
the HI properties of over 740 galaxy groups in the volume of sky common to the SDSS and ALFALFA surveys. We assigned ALFALFA HI detections a group membership based on an existing magnitude/volume-limited SDSS DR7 group/cluster catalog. Additionally, we assigned group proximity membership to HI detected objects whose optical counterpart falls below the limiting optical magnitude--thereby not contributing substantially to the estimate of the group stellar mass, but significantly to the total group HI mass. We find that only 25% of the HI detected galaxies reside in groups or clusters, in contrast to approximately half of all optically detected galaxies. Further, we plot the relative positions of optical and HI detections in groups as a function of parent dark matter halo mass to reveal strong evidence that HI is being processed in galaxies as a result of the group environment: as optical membership increases, groups become increasingly deficient of HI rich galaxies at their center and the HI distribution of galaxies in the most massive groups starts to resemble the distribution observed in comparatively more extreme cluster environments. We find that the lowest HI mass objects lose their gas first as they are processed in the group environment, and it is evident that the infall of gas rich objects is important to the continuing growth of large scale structure at the present epoch, replenishing the neutral gas supply of groups. Finally, we compare our results to those of cosmological simulations and find that current models cannot simultaneously predict the HI selected halo occupation distribution for both low and high mass halos.
HI observations of the Magellanic-type spiral NGC 3109, obtained with the seven dish Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7), are used to analyze its mass distribution. Our results are compared to what is obtained using VLA data. KAT-7 is the precursor of the
SKA pathfinder MeerKAT, which is under construction. The short baselines and low system temperature of the telescope make it sensitive to large scale low surface brightness emission. The new observations with KAT-7 allow the measurement of the rotation curve of NGC 3109 out to 32, doubling the angular extent of existing measurements. A total HI mass of 4.6 x 10^8 Msol is derived, 40% more than what was detected by the VLA observations. The observationally motivated pseudo-isothermal dark matter (DM) halo model can reproduce very well the observed rotation curve but the cosmologically motivated NFW DM model gives a much poorer fit to the data. While having a more accurate gas distribution has reduced the discrepancy between the observed RC and the MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) models, this is done at the expense of having to use unrealistic mass-to-light ratios for the stellar disk and/or very large values for the MOND universal constant a0. Different distances or HI contents cannot reconcile MOND with the observed kinematics, in view of the small errors on those two quantities. As for many slowly rotating gas-rich galaxies studied recently, the present result for NGC 3109 continues to pose a serious challenge to the MOND theory.
Accurate optical redshifts will be critical for spectral co-adding techniques used to extract detections from below the noise level in ongoing and upcoming surveys for HI, which will extend our current understanding of gas reservoirs in galaxies to l
ower column densities and higher redshifts. We have used existing, high quality optical and radio data from the SDSS and ALFALFA surveys to investigate the relationship between redshifts derived from optical spectroscopy and neutral hydrogen (HI) spectral line observations. We find that the two redshift measurements agree well, with a negligible systematic offset and a small distribution width. Employing simple simulations, we determine how the width of an ideal stacked HI profile depends on these redshift offsets, as well as larger redshift errors more appropriate for high redshift galaxy surveys. The width of the stacked profile is dominated by the width distribution of the input individual profiles when the redshift errors are less than the median width of the input profiles, and only when the redshift errors become large, ~150 km/s, do they significantly affect the width of the stacked profile. This redshift accuracy can be achieved with moderate resolution optical spectra. We provide guidelines for the number of spectra required for stacking to reach a specified mass sensitivity, given telescope and survey parameters, which will be useful for planning optical spectroscopy observing campaigns to supplement the radio data.
High-resolution 21-cm HI deep fields provide spatially and kinematically resolved neutral gas maps at different redshifts, which are key to understanding galaxy evolution across cosmic time and testing predictions of cosmological simulations. Here we
present results from a pilot for the COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES) done with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). We take advantage of the newly expanded capabilities of the telescope to probe the redshift interval 0<z<0.193 in one observation. We observe the COSMOS field for 50 hours, which contains 413 galaxies with optical spectroscopic redshifts in the imaged field of view of 34 x 34 and the observed redshift interval. We have detected neutral hydrogen gas in 33 galaxies in different environments spanning the probed redshift range, including three without a previously known spectroscopic redshift. The detections have a range of HI and stellar masses, indicating the diversity of galaxies we are probing. We discuss the observations, data reduction, results and highlight interesting detections. We find that the VLAs B-array is the ideal configuration for HI deep fields since its long spacings mitigate RFI. This pilot shows that the VLA is ready to carry out such a survey, and serves as a test for future HI deep fields planned with other SKA pathfinders.
We present the first systematic 1.4 GHz Very Large Array radio continuum survey of fossil galaxy group candidates. These are virialized systems believed to have assembled over a gigayear in the past through the merging of galaxy group members into a
single, isolated, massive elliptical galaxy and featuring an extended hot X-ray halo. We use new photometric and spectroscopic data from SDSS Data Release 7 to determine that three of the candidates are clearly not fossil groups. Of the remaining 30 candidates, 67% contain a radio-loud (L_1.4GHz > 10^23 W Hz^-1) active galactic nucleus (AGN) at the center of their dominant elliptical galaxy. We find a weak correlation between the radio luminosity of the AGN and the X-ray luminosity of the halo suggesting that the AGN contributes to energy deposition into the intragroup medium. We only find a correlation between the radio and optical luminosity of the central elliptical galaxy when we include X-ray selected, elliptically dominated non-fossil groups, indicating a weak relationship between AGN strength and the mass assembly history of the groups. The dominant elliptical galaxy of fossil groups is on average roughly an order of magnitude more luminous than normal group elliptical galaxies in optical, X-ray, and radio luminosities and our findings are consistent with previous results that the radio-loud fraction in elliptical galaxies is linked to the stellar mass of a population. The current level of activity in fossil groups suggests that AGN fueling continues long after the last major merger. We discuss several possibilities for fueling the AGN at the present epoch.
We report the discovery of a UV-bright tidal dwarf galaxy candidate in the NGC 4631/4656 galaxy group, which we designate NGC 4656UV. Using survey and archival data spanning from 1.4 GHz to the ultraviolet we investigate the gas kinematics and stella
r properties of this system. The HI morphologies of NGC 4656UV and its parent galaxy NGC 4656 are extremely disturbed, with significant amounts of counterrotating and extraplanar gas. From UV-FIR photometry, computed using a new method to correct for surface gradients on faint objects, we find that NGC 4656UV has no significant dust opacity and a blue spectral energy distribution. We compute a star formation rate of 0.027 M_sun yr^-1 from the FUV flux and measure a total HI mass of 3.8x10^8 M_sun for the object. Evolutionary synthesis modeling indicates that NGC 4656UV is a low metallicity system whose only major burst of star formation occurred within the last ~260-290 Myr. The age of the stellar population is consistent with a rough timescale for a recent tidal interaction between NGC 4656 and NGC 4631, although we discuss the true nature of the object--whether it is tidal or pre-existing in origin--in the context of its metallicity being a factor of ten lower than its parent galaxy. We estimate that NGC 4656UV is either marginally bound or unbound. If bound, it contains relatively low amounts of dark matter. The abundance of archival data allows for a deeper investigation into this dynamic system than is currently possible for most TDG candidates.
In this paper we report on the evidence for ionization track signals from cosmic ray muons and Compton electrons in a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) filled with liquid Argon and doped with different fractions of Nitrogen. This study has been conducted
in view of the possible use of liquid Argon/Nitrogen TPCs for the detection of gamma rays in the resonant band of the Nitrogen absorbtion spectrum, a promising technology for security and medical applications.
