分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We use the single-dish radio telescope FAST to map the HI in the tidally interacting NGC 4631 group with a resolution of 3.24$'$ (7 kpc), reaching a 5-$\sigma$ column density limit of $10^{17.9}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming a line width of 20 km s$^{-1}$. Taking the existing interferometric HI image from the HALOGAS project of WSRT as reference, we are able to identify and characterize a significant excess of large-scale, low-density, and diffuse HI in the group. This diffuse HI extends for more than 120 kpc across, and accounts for more than one fourth of the total HI detected by FAST in and around the galaxy NGC 4631. In the region of the tidal tails, the diffuse HI has a typical column density above $10^{19.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, and is highly turbulent with a velocity dispersion around 50 km s$^{-1}$. It increases in column density with the dense HI, and tends to be associated with the kinematically ``hotter'' part of the dense HI. Through simple modeling, we find that the majority of the diffuse HI in the tail region is likely to induce cooling out of the hot IGM instead of evaporating or being radiatively ionized. Given these relations of gas in different phases, the diffuse HI may represent a condensing phase of the IGM. Active tidal interactions on-going and in the past may have produced the wide-spreading HI distribution, and triggered the gas accretion to NGC 4631 through the phase of the diffuse HI.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We conduct a $^{12}$C$^{16}$O($J$=1-0) (hereafter CO) mapping survey of 64 galaxies in the Fornax cluster using the ALMA Morita array in cycle 5. CO emission is detected from 23 out of the 64 galaxies. Our sample includes dwarf, spiral and elliptical galaxies with stellar masses of $M_{\rm star}\sim10^{6.3-11.6}$~M$_\odot$. The achieved beam size and sensitivity are $15''\times8''$ and $\sim12$~mJy~beam$^{-1}$ at the velocity resolution of $\sim10$~km~s$^{-1}$, respectively. We study the cold-gas (molecular- and atomic-gas) properties of 38 subsamples with $M_{\rm star}>10^9$~M$_\odot$ combined with literature HI data. We find that: (1) the low star-formation (SF) activity in the Fornax galaxies is caused by the decrease in the cold-gas mass fraction with respect to stellar mass (hereafter, gas fraction) rather than the decrease of the SF efficiency from the cold gas; (2) the atomic-gas fraction is more heavily reduced than the molecular-gas fraction of such galaxies with low SF activity. A comparison between the cold-gas properties of the Fornax galaxies and their environmental properties suggests that the atomic gas is stripped tidally and by the ram pressure, which leads to the molecular gas depletion with an aid of the strangulation and consequently SF quenching. Pre-processes in the group environment would also play a role in reducing cold-gas reservoirs in some Fornax galaxies.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We use the single-dish radio telescope FAST to map the HI in the tidally interacting NGC 4631 group with a resolution of 3.24$'$ (7 kpc), reaching a 5-$\sigma$ column density limit of $10^{17.9}$ cm$^{-2}$ assuming a line width of 20 km s$^{-1}$. Taking the existing interferometric HI image from the HALOGAS project of WSRT as reference, we are able to identify and characterize a significant excess of large-scale, low-density, and diffuse HI in the group. This diffuse HI extends for more than 120 kpc across, and accounts for more than one fourth of the total HI detected by FAST in and around the galaxy NGC 4631. In the region of the tidal tails, the diffuse HI has a typical column density above $10^{19.5}$ cm$^{-2}$, and is highly turbulent with a velocity dispersion around 50 km s$^{-1}$. It increases in column density with the dense HI, and tends to be associated with the kinematically ``hotter'' part of the dense HI. Through simple modeling, we find that the majority of the diffuse HI in the tail region is likely to induce cooling out of the hot IGM instead of evaporating or being radiatively ionized. Given these relations of gas in different phases, the diffuse HI may represent a condensing phase of the IGM. Active tidal interactions on-going and in the past may have produced the wide-spreading HI distribution, and triggered the gas accretion to NGC 4631 through the phase of the diffuse HI.