H I line observations of 2MASS galaxies in the zone of avoidance

To complement the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) and the 2MASS Tully-Fisher survey (2MTF) a search for 21cm HI line emission of 2MASS bright galaxy candidates has been pursued along the dust-obscured plane of the Milky Way with the 100m Nancay Radio Telescope. For our sample selection we adopted an isophotal extinction-corrected K-band magnitude limit of $K_s^o = 11.25$mag, corresponding to the first 2MRS data release and 2MTF, for which the 2MASX completeness level remains fairly constant deep into the Zone of Avoidance (ZoA). About one thousand galaxies without prior redshift measurement accessible from Nancay (Dec > -40\deg) were observed to an rms noise level of ~3 mJy for the velocity range -250 to 10'600 km/s. This resulted in 220 clear and 12 marginal detections of the target sample. Only few detections have redshifts above 8000 km/s due to recurring radio frequency interference (RFI). A further 29 detections and 6 marginals have their origin in non-target galaxies in the telescope beam. The newly detected galaxies are on average considerably more \HI-rich (mostly $10^9 - 10^{10}$M$_\odot$) compared to systematic (blind) HI surveys. The HI detections reveal various new filaments crossing the mostly uncharted northern ZoA (e.g. at $\ell \sim 90\deg, 130\deg, 160\deg$), whilst consolidating galaxy agglomerations in Monoceros and Puppis ($\ell \sim 220\deg, 240\deg$). Considerably new insight has been gained about the extent of the Perseus-Pisces Supercluster through the confirmation of a ridge ($\ell \sim 160\deg$) encompassing the 3C129 cluster that links Perseus-Pisces to Lynx, and the continuation of the second Perseus-Pisces arm ($\ell \sim 90\deg$) across the ZoA.

We present a sky simulation of the atomic HI-emission line and the first 10 rotational CO emission lines of molecular gas in galaxies beyond the Milky Way. The simulated sky field has a comoving diameter of 500 Mpc/h; hence, the actual field-of-view depends on the (user-defined) maximal redshift zmax; e. g., for zmax=10, the field of view yields 4x4 deg^2. For all galaxies, we estimate the line fluxes, line profiles, and angular sizes of the Hi and CO-emission lines. The galaxy sample is complete for galaxies with cold hydrogen masses above 10^8 Msun. This sky simulation builds on a semi-analytic model of the cosmic evolution of galaxies in a Lambda-cold dark matter (Lambda CDM) cosmology. The evolving CDM distribution was adopted from the Millennium Simulation, an N-body CDM-simulation in a cubic box with a side length of 500 Mpc/h. This side length limits the coherence scale of our sky simulation: it is long enough to allow the extraction of the baryon acoustic oscillations in the galaxy power spectrum, yet the position and amplitude of the first acoustic peak will be imperfectly defined. This sky simulation is a tangible aid to the design and operation of future telescopes, such as the Square Kilometre Array, Large Millimeter Telescope, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The results presented in this paper have been restricted to a graphical representation of the simulated sky and fundamental dN/dz-analyses for peak flux density limited and total flux limited surveys of Hi and CO. A key prediction is that HI will be harder to detect at redshifts z>2 than predicted by a no-evolution model. The future verification or falsification of this prediction will allow us to qualify the semi-analytic models.

The GMRTHI 21 cm-line observations of galaxies in the Eridanus group are presented. The Eridanus group, at a distance of ≈ 23 Mpc, is a loose group of ≈200 galaxies. The group extends to more than 10 Mpc in projection. The velocity dispersion of the galaxies in the group is ≈240 km s−1. The galaxies are clustered into different sub-groups. The overall population mix of the group is 30% (E + S0) and 70% (Sp + Irr). The observations of 57 Eridanus galaxies were carried out with the GMRT for ≈ 200 h. HI emission was detected from 31 galaxies. The channel rms of ≈ 1 mJy beam−1 was achieved for most of the image-cubes made with 4 h of data. The corresponding HI column density sensitivity (3σ) is ≈ 1 × 1020 cm−2 for a velocity-width of ≈ 13.4 km s−1. The 3σ detection limit of HI mass is ≈ 1.2 X 107 Mpd for a line-width of 50 km s−1. Total HI images, HI velocity fields, global HI line profiles, HI mass surface densities, HI disk parameters and HI rotation curves are presented. The velocity fields are analysed separately for the approaching and the receding sides of the galaxies. These data will be used to study the HI and the radio continuum properties, the Tully-Fisher relations, the dark matter halos, and the kinematical and HI lopsidedness in galaxies.

We present results from 21 cm radio synthesis imaging of 28 spiral galaxies from the DiskMass Survey obtained with the VLA, WSRT, and GMRT facilities. We detail the observations and data reduction procedures and present a brief analysis of the radio data. We construct 21 cm continuum images, global HI emission-line profiles, column-density maps, velocity fields, and position-velocity diagrams. From these we determine star formation rates (SFRs), HI line widths, total HI masses, rotation curves, and azimuthally-averaged radial HI column-density profiles. All galaxies have an HI disk that extends beyond the readily observable stellar disk, with an average ratio and scatter of R_{HI}/R_{25}=1.35+/-0.22, and a majority of the galaxies appear to have a warped HI disk. A tight correlation exists between total HI mass and HI diameter, with the largest disks having a slightly lower average column density. Galaxies with relatively large HI disks tend to exhibit an enhanced stellar velocity dispersion at larger radii, suggesting the influence of the gas disk on the stellar dynamics in the outer regions of disk galaxies. We find a striking similarity among the radial HI surface density profiles, where the average, normalized radial profile of the late-type spirals is described surprisingly well with a Gaussian profile. These results can be used to estimate HI surface density profiles in galaxies that only have a total HI flux measurement. We compare our 21 cm radio continuum luminosities with 60 micron luminosities from IRAS observations for a subsample of 15 galaxies and find that these follow a tight radio-infrared relation, with a hint of a deviation from this relation at low luminosities. We also find a strong correlation between the average SFR surface density and the K-band surface brightness of the stellar disk.

The Effelsberg-Bonn HI Survey (EBHIS) is a new 21-cm survey performed with the 100-m telescope at Effelsberg. It covers the whole northern sky out to a redshift of z~0.07 and comprises HI line emission from the Milky Way and the Local Volume. We aim to substitute the northern-hemisphere part of the Leiden/Argentine/Bonn Milky Way HI survey (LAB) with this first EBHIS data release, which presents the HI gas in the Milky Way regime. The use of a seven-beam L-band array made it feasible to perform this all-sky survey with a 100-m class telescope in a reasonable amount of observing time. State-of-the-art fast-Fourier-transform spectrometers provide the necessary data read-out speed, dynamic range, and spectral resolution to apply software radio-frequency interference mitigation. EBHIS is corrected for stray radiation and employs frequency-dependent flux-density calibration and sophisticated baseline-removal techniques to ensure the highest possible data quality. Detailed analyses of the resulting data products show that EBHIS is not only outperforming LAB in terms of sensitivity and angular resolution, but also matches the intensity-scale of LAB extremely well, allowing EBHIS to be used as a drop-in replacement for LAB. Data products are made available to the public in a variety of forms. Most important, we provide a properly gridded Milky Way HI column density map in HEALPix representation. To maximize the usefulness of EBHIS data, we estimate uncertainties in the HI column density and brightness temperature distributions, accounting for systematic effects.

We present the catalog of HI sources extracted from the ongoing Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) extragalactic HI line survey, found within the sky region bounded by 9h36m < RA < 11h36m and +08deg < DEC < +12deg. The HI catalog presented here for this 118-deg^2 region is combined with ones derived from surrounding regions also covered by the ALFALFA survey to examine the large scale structure in the complex Leo region. Because of the combination of wide sky coverage and superior sensitivity, spatial and spectral resolution, the ALFALFA HI catalog of the Leo region improves significantly on the numbers of low HI mass sources as compared with those found in previous HI surveys. The HI mass function of the Leo I group presented here is dominated by low-mass objects: 45 of the 65 Leo I members have M_HI < 10^8 Msun, yielding tight constraints on the low-mass slope of the Leo I HI mass function. The best-fit slope is alpha < -1.41 + 0.2 - 0.1. A direct comparison between the ALFALFA HI line detections and an optical search of the Leo I region proves the advantage of the ALFALFA strategy in finding low mass, gas-rich dwarfs. These results suggest the existence of a significant population of low surface brightness, gas-rich, yet still very low HI mass galaxies, and may reflect the same type of morphological segregation as is seen in the Local Group. While the low mass end slope of the Leo I HI mass function is steeper than that determined for luminosity functions of the group, the slope still falls short of the values predicted by simulations of structure formation in the LCDM paradigm.

We study the question whether some of the dark matter in the Milky Way may be baryonic. Considering a proposal by Pfenniger & Combes that dark matter might be associated with the Galactic disk, we study first the case whether such a model may be consistent at all. To model the mass distribution in the Milky Way we assume that dark matter may be contained in an isothermal sphere but also within the disk. We add bulge, bar, and two stellar disks, thick and thin. The gas is characterized by a molecular component, HI gas (cold and warm neutral medium), a diffuse ionized gas component, and a more extended halo component giving rise to the soft X-ray background, but also observable as faint HI lines. All disk components are assumed to be isothermal. A self-consistent solution of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation for mass distribution and gravitational potential in 3-D is discussed. We find a pronounced flaring for all of the isothermal disk components. The flaring derived from the model is in excellent agreement with observations. Oort limit and the local gravitational potential perpendicular to the plane agree with observations. In general, such a solution is consistent with all known observational constraints. The proposal that a disk-like dark matter component in the Milky Way exists in form of H2 clumpuscules is found to be very appealing. A “conspiracy” between gas and dark matter would be a natural consequence. Cloud-cloud collisions and evaporation of H2 clumpuscules would explain that we can observe an X-ray background and faint HI emission lines despite the fact that the cooling timescale is similar to the free fall timescale. The turbulent motion of the clumpuscules would be important for the stability of the Milky Way. At the same time turbulence would explain the scale height of the gaseous halo. Such a baryonic dark matter disk would be consistent with the expected baryon fraction. Similar, the angular momentum of the Milky Way disk would get easily explainable.

We forecast the abilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array\n(ALMA) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) to detect CO and HI emission lines\nin galaxies at redshift z=3. A particular focus is set on Milky Way (MW)\nprogenitors at z=3 for their detection within 24 h constitutes a key science\ngoal of ALMA. The analysis relies on a semi-analytic model, which permits the\nconstruction of a MW progenitor sample by backtracking the cosmic history of\nall simulated present-day galaxies similar to the real MW. Results: (i) ALMA\ncan best observe a MW at z=3 by looking at CO(3-2) emission. The probability of\ndetecting a random model MW at 3-sigma in 24 h using 75 km/s channels is\nroughly 50%, and these odds can be increased by co-adding the CO(3-2) and\nCO(4-3) lines. These lines fall into ALMA band 3, which therefore represents\nthe optimal choice towards MW detections at z=3. (ii) Higher CO transitions\ncontained in the ALMA bands geq6 will be invisible, unless the considered MW\nprogenitor coincidentally hosts a major starburst or an active black hole.\n(iii) The high-frequency array of SKA, fitted with 28.8 GHz receivers, would be\na powerful instrument for observing CO(1-0) at z=3, able to detect nearly all\nsimulated MWs in 24 h. (iv) HI detections in MWs at z=3 using the low-frequency\narray of SKA will be impossible in any reasonable observing time. (v) SKA will\nnonetheless be a supreme ha survey instrument through its enormous\ninstantaneous field-of-view (FoV). A one year pointed HI survey with an assumed\nFoV of 410 sqdeg would reveal at least 10^5 galaxies at z=2.95-3.05. (vi) If\nthe positions and redshifts of those galaxies are known from an\noptical/infrared spectroscopic survey, stacking allows the detection of HI at\nz=3 in less than 24 h.\n

HI observations are presented for a new sample of 73 candidates BCDGs. HI emission has been detected from 36 and possible emission from 11 galaxies. For detected galaxies HI radial velocities, HI line width measured at 50% and 20% of the maximum intensity, HI fluxes, and HI masses are determined. The distributions of several parameters are given.

The origin of the near-infrared (NIR) HI emission lines in young stellar objects are not yet understood. To probe it, we present multi-epoch LBT-LUCIFER spectroscopic observations of the Pa{\delta}, Pa{\beta}, and Br{\gamma} lines observed in the Herbig star VVSer, along with VLTI-AMBER Br{\gamma} spectro-interferometric observations at medium resolution. Our spectroscopic observations show line profile variability in all the HI lines. The strongest variability is observed in the redshifted part of the line profiles. The Br{\gamma} spectro-interferometric observations indicate that the Br{\gamma} line emitting region is smaller than the continuum emitting region. To interpret our results, we employed radiative transfer models with three different flow configurations: magnetospheric accretion, a magneto-centrifugally driven disc wind, and a schematic bipolar outflow. Our models suggest that the HI line emission in VVSer is dominated by the contribution of an extended wind, perhaps a bipolar outflow. Although the exact physical process for producing such outflow is not known, this model is capable of reproducing the averaged single-peaked line profiles of the HI lines. Additionally, the observed visibilities, differential and closure phases are best reproduced when a wind is considered. Nevertheless, the complex line profiles and variability could be explained by changes in the relative contribution of the magnetosphere and/or winds to the line emission. This might indicate that the NIR HI lines are formed in a complex inner disc region where inflow and outflow components might coexist. Furthermore, the contribution of each of these mechanisms to the line appears time variable, suggesting a non-steady accretion/ejection flow.

The presence of HI gas in galaxies is inextricably linked to their morphology and evolution. This paper aims to understand the HI content of the already identified 2210 dwarfs located in the low-to-moderate density environments of the Mass Assembly of early-Type GaLAxies with their fine Structures (MATLAS) deep imaging survey. We combined the HI observations from the ATLAS3Dsurvey, with the extragalactic HI sources from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey, to extract the HI line width, velocity, and mass of the MATLAS dwarfs. From the 1773 dwarfs in our sample with available HI observations, 8% (145) have an HI line detection. The majority of the dwarfs show an irregular morphology, while 29% (42) are ellipticals, which is the largest sample of HI-bearing dwarf ellipticals (dEs) to date. Of the HI dwarf sample, 2% (three) are ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs), 12% have a transition-type morphology, 5% are tidal dwarf candidates, and 10% appear to be disrupted objects. In our optically selected sample, 9.5% of the dEs, 7% of the UDGs, and 10% of the classical dwarfs are HI-bearing. The HI-bearing dwarfs have, on average, bluer colors than the dwarfs without detected HI. We find relations between the stellar and HI masses, gas fraction, color, and absolute magnitude to be consistent with previous studies of dwarfs probing similar masses and environments. For 79% of the dwarfs identified as satellites of massive early-type galaxies, we find that the HI mass increases with the projected distance to the host. Using the HI line width, we estimate dynamical masses and find that 5% (seven) of the dwarfs are dark matter deficient.

We present a new technique for the statistical evaluation of the Tully-Fisher relation (TFR) using spectral line stacking. This technique has the potential to extend TFR observations to lower masses and higher redshifts than possible through a galaxy-by-galaxy analysis. It further avoids the need for individual galaxy inclination measurements. To quantify the properties of stacked HI emission lines, we consider a simplistic model of galactic disks with analytically expressible line profiles. Using this model, we compare the widths of stacked profiles with those of individual galaxies. We then follow the same procedure using more realistic mock galaxies drawn from the S3-SAX model (a derivative of the Millennium simulation). Remarkably, when stacking the apparent HI lines of galaxies with similar absolute magnitude and random inclinations, the width of the stack is very similar to the width of the deprojected (= corrected for inclination) and dedispersed (= after removal of velocity dispersion) input lines. Therefore, the ratio between the widths of the stack and the deprojected/dedispersed input lines is approximately constant - about 0.93 - with very little dependence on the gas dispersion, galaxy mass, galaxy morphology, and shape of the rotation curve. Finally, we apply our technique to construct a stacked TFR using HIPASS data which already has a well defined TFR based on individual detections. We obtain a B-band TFR with a slope of $-8.5\pm0.4$ and a K-band relation with a slope of $-11.7\pm0.6$ for the HIPASS data set which is consistent with the existing results.

To study the atomic, molecular and ionized emission of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), we have initiated a Large Program with the VLA: 'THOR - The HI, OH, Recombination Line survey of the Milky Way'. We map the 21cm HI line, 4 OH lines, 19 H_alpha recombination lines and the continuum from 1 to 2 GHz of a significant fraction of the Milky Way (l=15-67deg, |b|<1deg) at ~20 resolution. In this paper, we focus on the HI emission from the W43 star-formation complex. Classically, the HI 21cm line is treated as optically thin with column densities calculated under this assumption. This might give reasonable results for regions of low-mass star-formation, however, it is not sufficient to describe GMCs. We analyzed strong continuum sources to measure the optical depth, and thus correct the HI 21cm emission for optical depth effects and weak diffuse continuum emission. Hence, we are able to measure the HI mass of W43 more accurately and our analysis reveals a lower limit of M=6.6x10^6 M_sun, which is a factor of 2.4 larger than the mass estimated with the assumption of optically thin emission. The HI column densities are as high as N(HI)~150 M_sun/pc^2 ~ 1.9x10^22 cm^-2, which is an order of magnitude higher than for low mass star formation regions. This result challenges theoretical models that predict a threshold for the HI column density of ~10 M_sun/pc^2, at which the formation of molecular hydrogen should set in. By assuming an elliptical layered structure for W43, we estimate the particle density profiles. While at the cloud edge atomic and molecular hydrogen are well mixed, the center of the cloud is strongly dominated by molecular hydrogen. We do not identify a sharp transition between hydrogen in atomic and molecular form. Our results are an important characterization of the atomic to molecular hydrogen transition in an extreme environment and challenges current theoretical models.

We present new results of a spectroscopic survey of circumstellar HI in the direction of evolved stars made with the Nancay Radiotelescope. The HI line at 21 cm has been detected in the circumstellar shells of a variety of evolved stars: AGB stars, oxygen-rich and carbon-rich, Semi-Regular and Miras, and Planetary Nebulae. The emissions are generally spatially resolved, i.e. larger than 4', indicating shell sizes of the order of 1 pc which opens the possibility to trace the history of mass loss over the past ~ 10^4-10^5 years. The line-profiles are sometimes composite. The individual components have generally a quasi-Gaussian shape; in particular they seldom show the double-horn profile that would be expected from the spatially resolved optically thin emission of a uniformly expanding shell. This probably implies that the expansion velocity decreases outwards in the external shells (0.1-1 pc) of these evolved stars. The HI line-profiles do not necessarily match those of the CO rotational lines. Furthermore, the centroid velocities do not always agree with those measured in the CO lines and/or the stellar radial velocities. The HI emissions may also be shifted in position with respect to the central stars. Without excluding the possibility of asymmetric mass ejection, we suggest that these two effects could also be related to a non-isotropic interaction with the local interstellar medium. HI was detected in emission towards several sources (rho Per, alpha Her, delta^2 Lyr, U CMi) that otherwise have not been detected in any radio lines. Conversely it was not detected in the two oxygen-rich stars with substantial mass-loss rate, NML Tau and WX Psc, possibly because these sources are young with hydrogen in molecular form, and/or because the temperature of the circumstellar HI gas is very low (< 5 K).

About 25% of the optical extragalactic sky is obscured by the dust and stars of our Milky Way. Dynamically important structures might still lie hidden in this zone. Various approaches are presently being employed to uncover the galaxy distribution in the Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) but all suffer from (different) limitations and selection effects. We investigated the potential of using the DENIS NIR survey for studies of galaxies behind the obscuration layer of our Milky Way and for mapping the Galactic extinction. As a pilot study, we recovered DENIS I, J and K band images of heavily obscured but optically still visible galaxies. We determined the I, J and K band luminosity functions of galaxies on three DENIS strips that cross the center of the nearby, low-latitude, rich cluster Abell 3627. The extinction-corrected I-J and J-K colours of these cluster galaxies compare well with that of an unobscured cluster. We searched for and identified galaxies at latitudes where the Milky Way remains fully opaque (|b| < 5deg and A_B > 4-5mag) - in a systematic search as well as around positions of galaxies detected with the blind HI survey of the ZOA currently conducted with the Multibeam Receiver of the Parkes Radiotelescope.