HI Absorption Lines Detected from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey Data

Abstract

We present some preliminary results of an on-going study of HI 21-cm absorption lines based on the 40% survey data released by the Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFALFA). (1) Ten HI candidate absorbers have been detected. Five of them are previously published in the literature, and the rest of them are new detections that need further confirmation. (2) For those sources with no detected absorptions, we have calculated the upper limit of their foreground HI column density NHI. The statistical result of the NHI distribution indicates that the ratio Ts/f between the averaged spin temperature and coverage factor for DLAs (the damped Lyα systems) might be larger than 500K. The radio frequency interference (RFI) and standing wave are the main factors affecting the detection of HI absorption lines, which have been analyzed and discussed as well in order to find a method of solution. Our study can serve as a pathfinder for the future large-scale search of HI 21-cm absorption lines using the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), which is an Arecibo-type radio telescope currently under construction in China with greatly increased sensitivity, bandwidth, and observational sky area. As prospects, we have discussed two types of observational studies of HI absorption lines toward extragalactic sources using the FAST telescope.