The `Local Volume HI Survey' (LVHIS) comprises deep HI spectral line and 20-cm radio continuum observations of 82 nearby, gas-rich galaxies, supplemented by multi-wavelength images. Our sample consists of all galaxies with Local Group velocities v_LG < 550 km/s or distances D < 10 Mpc that are detected in the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS). Using full synthesis observations in at least three configurations of the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), we obtain detailed HI maps for a complete sample of gas-rich galaxies with Dec < -30 deg. Here we present a comprehensive LVHIS Galaxy Atlas, including the overall gas distribution, mean velocity field, velocity dispersion, and position-velocity diagrams, together with a homogeneous set of measured and derived galaxy properties. Our primary goal is to investigate the HI morphologies, kinematics, and environment at high resolution and sensitivity. LVHIS galaxies represent a wide range of morphologies and sizes; our measured HI masses range from ~10^7 to 10^10 Msun, based on independent distance estimates. The LVHIS Galaxy Atlas (including FITS files) is available on-line.
ABSTRACT Our GMRT (Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope) H i observations of the ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) UGC 2162, projected ∼ 300 kpc from the centre of the M 77 group, reveal it to a have an extended H i disc ($R_{\rm H\,{\small I}}/R_{25}$ ∼ 3.3) with a moderate rotational velocity (Vrot ∼ 31 km s−1). This Vrotis in line with that of dwarf galaxies with similar H i mass. We estimate an Mdyn of ∼1.14 × 109 M⊙ within the galaxy’s $R_ \rm {H\,{\small I}}$ ∼ 5.2 kpc. Additionally, our estimates of M200 for the galaxy from NFW models are in the range of 5.0–8.8 × 1010 M⊙. Comparing UGC 2162 to samples of UDGs with H i detections show it to have amongst the smallest Re with its MH i/M* being distinctly higher and g – icolour slightly bluer than typical values in those samples. We also compared H i and dark matter (DM) halo properties of UGC 2162 with dwarf galaxies in the LITTLE THINGS sample and find its DM halo mass and profile are within the range expected for a dwarf galaxy. While we were unable to determine the origin of the galaxy’s present-day optical form from our study, its normal H i rotation velocity in relation to its H i mass, H i morphology, environment, and dwarf mass DM halo ruled out some of the proposed ultra-diffuse galaxy formation scenarios for this galaxy.
We present the HI eXtreme (HIX) galaxy survey targeting some of the most HI rich galaxies in the southern hemisphere. The 13 HIX galaxies have been selected to host the most massive HI discs at a given stellar luminosity. We compare these galaxies to a control sample of average galaxies detected in the HI Parkes All Sky Survey (HIPASS, Barnes et al. 2001). As the control sample is matched in stellar luminosity, we find that the stellar properties of HIX galaxies are similar to the control sample. Furthermore, the specific star formation rate and optical morphology do not differ between HIX and control galaxies. We find, however, the HIX galaxies to be less efficient in forming stars. For the most HI massive galaxy in our sample (ESO075-G006, $\rm log\ M_{HI}\ [M_{\odot}] = 10.8$) the kinematic properties are the reason for inefficient star formation and HI excess. Examining the Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) HI imaging and Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) optical spectra of ESO075-G006 reveals an undisturbed galaxy without evidence for recent major, violent accretion events. A tilted-ring fit to the HI disc together with the gas-phase oxygen abundance distribution supports the scenario that gas has been constantly accreted onto ESO07-G006 but the high specific angular momentum makes ESO075-G006 very inefficient in forming stars. Thus a massive HI disc has been built up.
We use data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral Field Spectrograph Galaxy Survey and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to investigate the spatially resolved signatures of the environmental quenching of star formation in galaxies. Using dust-corrected measurements of the distribution of Hα emission, we measure the radial profiles of star formation in a sample of 201 star-forming galaxies covering three orders of magnitude in stellar mass (M*; 108.1–1010.95 M⊙) and in fifth nearest neighbour local environment density (Σ5; 10−1.3–102.1 Mpc−2). We show that star formation rate gradients in galaxies are steeper in dense (log10(Σ5/Mpc2) > 0.5) environments by | $0.58 \pm 0.29 \, \mathrm{dex} \, \mathrm{{\rm {\it r}}_{e}}^{-1}$ | in galaxies with stellar masses in the range | $10^{10} < \mathrm{M_{{\ast }}}/\mathrm{M_{{\odot }}} < 10^{11}$ | and that this steepening is accompanied by a reduction in the integrated star formation rate. However, for any given stellar mass or environment density, the star formation morphology of galaxies shows large scatter. We also measure the degree to which the star formation is centrally concentrated using the unitless scale-radius ratio (r50,Hα/r50,cont), which compares the extent of ongoing star formation to previous star formation. With this metric, we find that the fraction of galaxies with centrally concentrated star formation increases with environment density, from ∼5 ± 4 per cent in low-density environments (log10(Σ5/Mpc2) < 0.0) to 30 ± 15 per cent in the highest density environments (log10(Σ5/Mpc2) > 1.0). These lines of evidence strongly suggest that with increasing local environment density, the star formation in galaxies is suppressed, and that this starts in their outskirts such that quenching occurs in an outside-in fashion in dense environments and is not instantaneous.
Machine learning techniques have been increasingly useful in astronomical applications over the last few years, for example in the morphological classification of galaxies. Convolutional neural networks have proven to be highly effective in classifying objects in image data. The current work aims to establish when multiple components are present, in the astronomical context of synthesis imaging observations of radio sources. To this effect, we design a convolutional neural network to differentiate between different morphology classes using sources from the Radio Galaxy Zoo (RGZ) citizen science project. In this first step, we focus on exploring the factors that affect the performance of such neural networks, such as the amount of training data, number and nature of layers and the hyperparameters. We begin with a simple experiment in which we only differentiate between two extreme morphologies, using compact and multiple component extended sources. We found that a three convolutional layer architecture yielded very good results, achieving a classification accuracy of 97.4% on a test data set. The same architecture was then tested on a four-class problem where we let the network classify sources into compact and three classes of extended sources, achieving a test achieving a test accuracy of 93.5%. The best-performing convolutional neural network setup has been verified against RGZ Data Release 1 where a final test accuracy of 94.8% was obtained, using both original and augmented images. The use of sigma clipping does not offer a significant benefit overall, except in cases with a small number of training images.
Given the limited availability of direct evidence (pre-explosion observations) for supernova (SN) progenitors, the location of supernovae (SNe) within their host galaxies can be used to set limits on one of their most fundamental characteristics, their initial progenitor mass. We present our constraints on SN progenitors derived by comparing the radial distributions of 80 SNe in the SINGG and SUNGG surveys to the R-band, Halpha, and UV light distributions of the 55 host galaxies. The strong correlation of Type Ia SNe with R-band light is consistent with models containing only low mass progenitors, reflecting earlier findings. When we limit the analysis of Type II SNe to apertures containing 90 per cent of the total flux, the radial distribution of these SNe best traces far ultraviolet (FUV) emission, consistent with recent direct detections indicating Type II SNe have moderately massive red supergiant progenitors. Stripped Envelope (SE) SNe have the strongest correlation with Halpha fluxes, indicative of very massive progenitors (M* > 20 M_solar). This result contradicts a small, but growing, number of direct detections of SE SN progenitors indicating they are moderately massive binary systems. Our result is consistent, however, with a recent population analysis suggesting binary SE SN progenitor masses are regularly underestimated. SE SNe are centralised with respect to Type II SNe and there are no SE SNe recorded beyond half the maximum disc radius in the optical and one third the disc radius in the ultraviolet. The absence of SE SNe beyond these distances is consistent with reduced massive star formation efficiencies in the outskirts of the host galaxies.
Abstract Radio galaxies can extend far beyond the stellar component of their originating host galaxies, and their radio emission can consist of multiple discrete components. Furthermore, the apparent source structure will depend on survey sensitivity, resolution and the observing frequency. Associated discrete radio components and their originating host galaxy are typically identified through a visual comparison of radio and mid-infrared survey images. We present the first data release of Radio Galaxy Zoo, an online citizen science project that enlists the help of citizen scientists to cross-match extended radio sources from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty Centimeters (FIRST) and the Australia Telescope Large Area Survey (ATLAS) surveys, often with complex structure, to host galaxies in 3.6 μm infrared images from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and the Spitzer Space Telescope. This first data release consists of 100,185 classifications for 99,146 radio sources from the FIRST survey and 583 radio sources from the ATLAS survey. We include two tables for each of the FIRST and ATLAS surveys: 1) the identification of all components making up each radio source; and 2) the cross-matched host galaxies. These classifications have an average reliability of 0.83 based on the weighted consensus levels of our citizen scientists. The reliability of the DR1 catalogue has been further demonstrated through several parallel studies which used the pre-release versions of this catalogue to train and prototype machine learning-based classifiers. We also include a brief description of the radio source populations catalogued by RGZ DR1.
We built a multiwavelength data set for galaxies from the Local Volume H i Survey (LVHIS), which comprises 82 galaxies. We also select a sub-sample of 10 large galaxies for investigating properties in the galactic outskirts. The LVHIS sample covers nearly four orders of magnitude in stellar mass and two orders of magnitude in H i mass fraction (|$f_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}}$|). The radial distribution of H i gas with respect to the stellar disc is correlated with |$f_{\rm {H\,\small {I}}}$| but with a large scatter. We confirm the previously found correlations between the total H i mass and star formation rate (SFR), and between H i surface densities and SFR surface densities beyond R25. However, the former correlation becomes much weaker when the average surface densities rather than total mass or rate are considered, and the latter correlation also becomes much weaker when the effect of stellar mass is removed or controlled. Hence, the link between SFR and H i is intrinsically weak in these regions, consistent with what was found on kiloparsecs scales in the galactic inner regions. We find a strong correlation between the SFR surface density and the stellar mass surface density, which is consistent with the star formation models where the gas is in quasi-equilibrium with the mid-plane pressure. We find no evidence for H i warps to be linked with decreasing star-forming efficiencies.
We present new atomic hydrogen (HI) observations of the collisional ring galaxy NGC 922 obtained using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Our observations reveal for the first time the vast extent of the HI disc of this galaxy. The HI morphology and kinematics of NGC 922 show that this galaxy is not the product of a simple drop-through interaction, but has a more complex interaction history. The integrated HI flux density of NGC 922 from our observations is 24.7 Jy km s$^{-1}$, which is within the error of the flux value obtained using the $64$-m Parkes radio telescope. This flux density translates to a total HI mass of $1.1*10^{10}$ M$_{\circ}$ and corresponds to an HI to total mass fraction (M$_{HI}$/M$_{tot}$) of approximately $0.11$. The gaseous structures of NGC 922 are more extended to the north and include an HI tail that has a projected physical length of $8$ kpc. Gas warps are also evident in the velocity field of NGC 922 and are more prominent on the approaching and the western side of the disc. In comparison with a large sample of star-forming galaxies in the local Universe, NGC 922 possesses a high gas fraction relative to galaxies with a similar stellar mass of ~$10^{10.4}$ M$_{\circ}$, and exhibits a high specific star formation rate.