A blind HI survey of the extragalactic sky behind the southern Milky Way has been conducted with the multibeam receiver on the 64m Parkes radio telescope. The survey covers the Galactic longitude range 212{deg}<l<36{deg} and Galactic latitudes |b|<5{deg} to an rms sensitivity of 6mJy per beam per 27km/s channel and yields 883 galaxies to a recessional velocity of 12000km/s. The survey covers the sky within the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) area to greater sensitivity, finding lower HI mass galaxies at all distances, and probing more completely the large-scale structures at and beyond the distance of the Great Attractor. Fifty-one percent of the HI detections have an optical/near-infrared (NIR) counterpart in the literature. A further 27% have new counterparts found in existing, or newly obtained, optical/NIR images. The counterpart rate drops in regions of high foreground stellar crowding and extinction, and for low HI mass objects. Only 8% of all counterparts have a previous optical redshift measurement. The HI sources are found independently of Galactic extinction, although the detection rate drops in regions of high Galactic continuum. The survey is incomplete below a flux integral of approximately 3.1Jy/km/s and mean flux density of approximately 21mJy, with 75% and 81% of galaxies being above these limits, respectively. Taking into account dependence on both flux and velocity width, and constructing a scaled dependence on the flux integral limit with velocity width (w^0.74^), completeness limits of 2.8Jy/km/s and 17mJy are determined, with 92% of sources above these limits. A notable new galaxy is HIZOA J1353-58, a possible companion to the Circinus galaxy. Merging this catalog with the similarly conducted northern extension, large-scale structures are delineated, including those within the Puppis and Great Attractor regions and the Local Void. Several newly identified structures are revealed here for the first time. Three new galaxy concentrations (NW1, NW2, and NW3) are key in confirming the diagonal crossing of the Great Attractor Wall between the Norma Cluster and the CIZA J1324.7-5736 cluster. Further contributors to the general mass overdensity in that area are two new clusters (CW1 and CW2) in the nearer Centaurus Wall, one of which forms part of the striking 180{deg} (100h^-1^Mpc) long filament that dominates the southern sky at velocities of ~3000 km/s, and the suggestion of a further wall at the Great Attractor distance at slightly higher longitudes.
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 2GHz of a significant fraction of the Milky Way (l=15-67{deg}, |b|<1{deg}) 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)~150M_{sun}_/pc^2^~1.9x10^22cm^-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 ~10M_{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.
A procedure is presented to improve on measurement of total H I fluxes for extended sources in the Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFALFA) survey of neutral hydrogen sources in the nearby universe. A number of tests of the procedure are detailed, and we verify that we recover all of the flux measured with much larger telescope beams. Total fluxes are reported for all sources (1) exceeding 10 Jy km/s in the {alpha}.100 catalog (Haynes et al. 2018ApJ...861...49H), or (2) with Uppsala General Catalog (Cat. VII/26) diameters 3.0 arcmin or more, or (3) ALFALFA pipeline isophotal ellipse area more than 3.0 times the Arecibo beam. Total fluxes are also provided for a number of confused pairs and small groups including one or more of those high-flux sources. These data should be of use in baryonic Tully-Fisher studies and other applications where the measurement of the total reservoir of neutral atomic gas is important.
In this study, we present an update of a compilation of line width measurements of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) galaxy spectra at 21 cm wavelength. Our All Digital HI (ADHI) catalog consists of the previous release augmented with our new HI observations and an analysis of archival data. This study provides the required HI information to measure the distances of spiral galaxies through the application of the Tully-Fisher (TF) relation. We conducted observations at the Green Bank telescope (GBT) and reprocessed spectra obtained at the Nancay radiotelescope by the Nancay Interstellar Baryons Legacy Extragalactic Survey (NIBLES) and Kinematics of the Local Universe (KLUN) collaborations and we analyzed the recently published full completion Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) 100% survey in order to identify galaxies with good quality HI line width measurements. This paper adds new HI data adequate for TF use for 385 galaxies observed at GBT, 889 galaxies from archival Nancay spectra, and 1515 rescaled Arecibo ALFALFA spectra. In total, this release adds 1274 new good quality measurements to the ADHI catalog. Today, the ADHI database contains 18,874 galaxies, for which 15,433 have good quality data for TF use. The final goal is to compute accurate distances to spiral galaxies, which will be included in the next generation of peculiar velocities catalog: Cosmicflows-4. This paper adds new HI data adequate for TF use for 385 galaxies observed at GBT, 889 galaxies from archival Nancay spectra, and 1515 rescaled Arecibo ALFALFA spectra. In total, this release adds 1274 new good quality measurements to the ADHI catalog. Today, the ADHI database contains 18874 galaxies, for which 15433 have good quality data for TF use. The final goal is to compute accurate distances to spiral galaxies, which will be included in the next generation of peculiar velocities catalog: Cosmicflows-4.
We combine data from the Spitzer Survey for Stellar Structure in Galaxies, a recently calibrated empirical stellar mass estimator from Eskew et al., and an extensive database of HI spectral line profiles to examine the baryonic Tully-Fisher (BTF) relation. We find (1) that the BTF has lower scatter than the classic Tully-Fisher (TF) relation and is better described as a linear relationship, confirming similar previous results, (2) that the inclusion of a radial scale in the BTF decreases the scatter but only modestly, as seen previously for the TF relation, and (3) that the slope of the BTF, which we find to be 3.5+/-0.2({Delta}logM_baryon_/{Delta}logv_c_), implies that on average a nearly constant fraction (~0.4) of all baryons expected to be in a halo are "condensed" onto the central region of rotationally supported galaxies. The condensed baryon fraction, M_baryon_/M_total_, is, to our measurement precision, nearly independent of galaxy circular velocity (our sample spans circular velocities, v _c_, between 60 and 250km/s, but is extended to v_c_~10km/s using data from the literature). The observed galaxy-to-galaxy scatter in this fraction is generally {<=} a factor of 2 despite fairly liberal selection criteria. These results imply that cooling and heating processes, such as cold versus hot accretion, mass loss due to stellar winds, and active galactic nucleus driven feedback, to the degree that they affect the global galactic properties involved in the BTF, are independent of halo mass for galaxies with 10<v_c_<250km/s and typically introduce no more than a factor of two range in the resulting M_baryon_/M_total_. Recent simulations by Aumer et al. of a small sample of disk galaxies are in excellent agreement with our data, suggesting that current simulations are capable of reproducing the global properties of individual disk galaxies. More detailed comparison to models using the BTF holds great promise, but awaits improved determinations of the stellar masses.
We publish the Keck/HIRES and Keck/ESI spectra that we have obtained during the first 10 years of Keck observatory operations. Our full sample includes 42 HIRES spectra and 39 ESI spectra along 65 unique sight lines providing abundance measurements on about 85 DLA systems. The normalized data can be downloaded from the journal or from our supporting Web site. The database includes all of the sight lines that have been included in our papers on the chemical abundances, kinematics, and metallicities of the damped Ly{alpha} systems. This data has also been used to argue for variations in the fine-structure constant. We present new chemical abundance measurements for 10 damped Ly{alpha} systems and a summary table of high-resolution metallicity measurements (including values from the literature) for 153 damped Ly{alpha} systems at z>1.6. We caution, however, that this metallicity sample (and all previous ones) is biased to higher N_HI_ values than a random sample.
We present a catalog of 59 ultra-compact high velocity clouds (UCHVCs) extracted from the 40% complete ALFALFA HI-line survey. The ALFALFA UCHVCs have median flux densities of 1.34Jy.km/s, median angular diameters of 10', and median velocity widths of 23km/s. We show that the full UCHVC population cannot easily be associated with known populations of high velocity clouds. Of the 59 clouds presented here, only 11 are also present in the compact cloud catalog extracted from the commensal GALFA-HI survey, demonstrating the utility of this separate dataset and analysis. Based on their sky distribution and observed properties, we infer that the ALFALFA UCHVCs are consistent with the hypothesis that they may be very low mass galaxies within the Local Volume. In that case, most of their baryons would be in the form of gas, and because of their low stellar content, they remain unidentified by extant optical surveys. At distances of ~1Mpc, the UCHVCs have neutral hydrogen (HI) masses of ~10^5^-10^6^M_{sun}_, HI diameters of ~2-3kpc, and indicative dynamical masses within the HI extent of ~10^7^-10^8^M_{sun}_, similar to the Local Group ultra-faint dwarf Leo T. The recent ALFALFA discovery of the star-forming, metal-poor, low mass galaxy Leo P demonstrates that this hypothesis is true in at least one case. In the case of the individual UCHVCs presented here, confirmation of their extragalactic nature will require further work, such as the identification of an optical counterpart to constrain their distance.
We present ultraviolet (UV) follow-up of a sample of potential dwarf galaxy candidates selected for their neutral hydrogen (HI) properties, taking advantage of the low UV background seen by the GALEX satellite and its large and publicly available imaging footprint. The HI clouds, which are drawn from published Galactic Arecibo L-band Feed Array and Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array HI survey compact cloud catalogs, are selected to be galaxy candidates based on their spatial compactness and non-association with known high-velocity cloud complexes or Galactic HI emission. Based on a comparison of their UV characteristics to those of known dwarf galaxies, half (48%) of the compact HI clouds have at least one potential stellar counterpart with UV properties similar to those of nearby dwarf galaxies. If they are galaxies, then the star formation rates, HI masses, and star formation efficiencies of these systems follow the trends seen for much larger galaxies. The presence of UV emission is an efficient method to identify the best targets for spectroscopic follow-up, which is necessary to prove that the stars are associated with compact HI. Furthermore, searches of this nature help to refine the salient HI properties of likely dwarfs (even beyond the Local Group). In particular, HI compact clouds considered to be velocity outliers relative to their neighbor HI clouds have the most significant detection rate of single, appropriate UV counterparts. Correcting for the sky coverage of the two all-Arecibo sky surveys yielding the compact HI clouds, these results may imply the presence of potentially hundreds of new tiny galaxies across the entire sky.
Measurements of 544 radial velocities, 229 optical and 315 in the 21cm HI line, are presented for galaxies, mostly in the declination strip +33.5 deg<Dec<+39.5deg in the region of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster. These are combined with other available data to investigate the linear structure identified as the main supercluster ridge. The main ridge of the supercluster extends at least 50h^-1Mpc before it disappears into the zone of avoidance east of Perseus. Confinement both on the plane of the sky and in the velocity dimension imply an axial ratio of greater than ten to one and an inclination with respect to the plane of the sky of less than about 12 degrees. The smoothed volume density contrast over the whole ridge averages more than a factor of 6 relative to the average density derived for the whole sample. The relative proximity, low inclination to the plane of the sky, and high contrast relative to the foreground and background, help to make the Pisces-Perseus filament one of the most prominent features in the extragalactic sky on large scales.
A list of radial velocities, HI line widths and peculiar velocities of 1327 galaxies from the RFGC catalogue has been compiled using actual observations and literature data. The list can be used for studying bulk motions of galaxies, construction of the field of peculiar velocities and other tasks.
