Abstract
In this paper, we stack neutral atomic hydrogen (H i) spectra for 9720 star-forming galaxies along the mass–metallicity relation. The sample is selected according to stellar mass (109 ≤ ...M⋆/M⊙ ≤ 1011) and redshift (0.02 ≤ z ≤ 0.05) from the overlap of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. We confirm and quantify the strong anticorrelation between H i mass and gas-phase metallicity at fixed stellar mass. Furthermore, we show for the first time that the relationship between gas content and metallicity is consistent between different metallicity estimators, contrary to the weaker trends found with star formation which are known to depend on the observational techniques used to derive oxygen abundances and star formation rates. When interpreted in the context of theoretical work, this result supports a scenario where galaxies exist in an evolving equilibrium between gas, metallicity and star formation. The fact that deviations from this equilibrium are most strongly correlated with gas mass suggests that the scatter in the mass–metallicity relation is primarily driven by fluctuations in gas accretion.
Abstract
We present the extended GALEX Arecibo SDSS Survey (xGASS), a gas fraction-limited census of the atomic hydrogen (H i) gas content of 1179 galaxies selected only by stellar mass (M⋆ = ...109–1011.5 M⊙) and redshift (0.01 < z < 0.05). This includes new Arecibo observations of 208 galaxies, for which we release catalogues and H i spectra. In addition to extending the GASS H i scaling relations by one decade in stellar mass, we quantify total (atomic+molecular) cold gas fractions and molecular-to-atomic gas mass ratios, Rmol, for the subset of 477 galaxies observed with the IRAM 30 m telescope. We find that atomic gas fractions keep increasing with decreasing stellar mass, with no sign of a plateau down to log M⋆/M⊙ = 9. Total gas reservoirs remain H i-dominated across our full stellar mass range, hence total gas fraction scaling relations closely resemble atomic ones, but with a scatter that strongly correlates with Rmol, especially at fixed specific star formation rate. On average, Rmol weakly increases with stellar mass and stellar surface density μ⋆, but individual values vary by almost two orders of magnitude at fixed M⋆ or μ⋆. We show that, for galaxies on the star-forming sequence, variations of Rmol are mostly driven by changes of the H i reservoirs, with a clear dependence on μ⋆. Establishing if galaxy mass or structure plays the most important role in regulating the cold gas content of galaxies requires an accurate separation of bulge and disc components for the study of gas scaling relations.
We use spectra from the ALFALFA, GASS and COLD GASS surveys to quantify variations in the mean atomic and molecular gas mass fractions throughout the SFR–M
* plane and along the main sequence (MS) of ...star-forming galaxies. Although galaxies well below the MS tend to be undetected in the Arecibo and IRAM observations, reliable mean atomic and molecular gas fractions can be obtained through a spectral stacking technique. We find that the position of galaxies in the SFR–M
* plane can be explained mostly by their global cold gas reservoirs as observed in the H i line, with in addition systematic variations in the molecular-to-atomic ratio and star formation efficiency. When looking at galaxies within ±0.4 dex of the MS, we find that as stellar mass increases, both atomic and molecular gas mass fractions decrease, stellar bulges become more prominent, and the mean stellar ages increase. Both star formation efficiency and molecular-to-atomic ratios vary little for massive MS galaxies, indicating that the flattening of the MS is due to the global decrease of the cold gas reservoirs of galaxies rather than to bottlenecks in the process of converting cold atomic gas to stars.
ABSTRACT
We present a comparison of galaxy atomic and molecular gas properties in three recent cosmological hydrodynamic simulations, namely SIMBA, EAGLE, and IllustrisTNG, versus observations from z ...∼ 0 to 2. These simulations all rely on similar subresolution prescriptions to model cold interstellar gas that they cannot represent directly, and qualitatively reproduce the observed z ≈ 0 H i and H2 mass functions (HIMFs and H2MFs, respectively), CO(1–0) luminosity functions (COLFs), and gas scaling relations versus stellar mass, specific star formation rate, and stellar surface density μ*, with some quantitative differences. To compare to the COLF, we apply an H2-to-CO conversion factor to the simulated galaxies based on their average molecular surface density and metallicity, yielding substantial variations in αCO and significant differences between models. Using this, predicted z = 0 COLFs agree better with data than predicted H2MFs. Out to z ∼ 2, EAGLE’s and SIMBA’s HIMFs and COLFs strongly increase, while IllustrisTNG’s HIMF declines and COLF evolves slowly. EAGLE and simba reproduce high-LCO(1–0) galaxies at z ∼ 1–2 as observed, owing partly to a median αCO(z = 2) ∼ 1 versus αCO(z = 0) ∼ 3. Examining H i, H2, and CO scaling relations, their trends with M* are broadly reproduced in all models, but EAGLE yields too little H i in green valley galaxies, IllustrisTNG and SIMBA overproduce cold gas in massive galaxies, and SIMBA overproduces molecular gas in small systems. Using SIMBA variants that exclude individual active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback modules, we find that SIMBA’s AGN jet feedback is primarily responsible by lowering cold gas contents from z ∼ 1 → 0 by suppressing cold gas in $M_*\gtrsim 10^{10}{\rm \,M}_\odot$ galaxies, while X-ray feedback suppresses the formation of high-μ* systems.
We introduce xCOLD GASS, a legacy survey providing a census of molecular gas in the local universe. Building on the original COLD GASS survey, we present here the full sample of 532 galaxies with CO ...(1-0) measurements from the IRAM 30 m telescope. The sample is mass-selected in the redshift interval from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and therefore representative of the local galaxy population with . The CO (1-0) flux measurements are complemented by observations of the CO (2-1) line with both the IRAM 30 m and APEX telescopes, H i observations from Arecibo, and photometry from SDSS, WISE, and GALEX. Combining the IRAM and APEX data, we find that the ratio of CO (2-1) to CO (1-0) luminosity for integrated measurements is , with no systematic variations across the sample. The CO (1-0) luminosity function is constructed and best fit with a Schechter function with parameters , , and . With the sample now complete down to stellar masses of 109 , we are able to extend our study of gas scaling relations and confirm that both molecular gas fractions ( ) and depletion timescale ( ) vary with specific star formation rate (or offset from the star formation main sequence) much more strongly than they depend on stellar mass. Comparing the xCOLD GASS results with outputs from hydrodynamic and semianalytic models, we highlight the constraining power of cold gas scaling relations on models of galaxy formation.
In this paper, we investigate environment-driven gas depletion in satellite galaxies, taking full advantage of the atomic hydrogen (H i) spectral stacking technique to quantify the gas content for ...the entire gas-poor to -rich regimes. We do so using a multiwavelength sample of 10 600 satellite galaxies, selected according to stellar mass (log M*/M... greater than or equal to 9) and redshift (0.02 less than or equal to z less than or equal to 0.05) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, with H i data from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. Using key H i-to-stellar mass scaling relations, we present evidence that the gas content of satellite galaxies is, to a significant extent, dependent on the environment in which a galaxy resides. For the first time, we demonstrate that systematic environmental suppression of gas content at both fixed stellar mass and fixed specific star formation rate in satellite galaxies begins in halo masses typical of the group regime (log M sub( h)/M... < 13.5), well before galaxies reach the cluster environment. We also show that environment-driven gas depletion is more closely associated with halo mass than local density. Our results are then compared with state-of-the-art semi-analytic models and hydrodynamical simulations and discussed within this framework, showing that more work is needed if models are to reproduce the observations. We conclude that the observed decrease of gas content in the group and cluster environments cannot be reproduced by starvation of the gas supply alone and invoke fast acting processes such as ram-pressure stripping of cold gas to explain this. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
ABSTRACT
We use Milky Way-like chemodynamical simulations with a new treatment for dust destruction and growth to investigate how these two processes affect the properties of the interstellar medium ...in galaxies. We focus on the role of two specific parameters, namely fdes (a new parameter that determines the fraction of dust destroyed in a single gas particle vicinity of a supernova) and Cs (the probability that a metal atom or ion sticks to the dust grain after colliding, i.e. the sticking coefficient), in regulating the amount and distribution of dust, cold gas and metals in galaxies. We find that simulated galaxies with low fdes and/or high Cs values not only produce more dust, but they also have a shallower correlation between the dust surface density and the total gas surface density, and a steeper correlation between the dust-to-gas ratio and the metallicity. Only for values of fdes between 0.01 and 0.02, and of Cs between 0.5 and 1 do our simulations produce an average slope of the dust-to-gas ratio versus metallicity relationship that is consistent with observations. fdes values correspond to a total fraction of dust destroyed by a single supernova ranging between 0.42 and 0.44. Finally, we compare predictions of several simulations (with different star formation recipes, gas fractions, central metallicities, and metallicity gradients) with the spatially resolved M101 galaxy, and conclude that metallicity is the primary driver of the spatial distribution of dust, while the dust-to-gas ratio controls the cold gas distribution, as it regulates the atomc-to-molecular hydrogen conversion rate.
We present the first high-resolution map of the cold molecular gas distribution as traced by CO(2−1) emission with ALMA in a long ram pressure stripped tail. The Norma cluster galaxy ESO 137-001 is ...undergoing a strong interaction with the surrounding intracluster medium and is one of the nearest jellyfish galaxies with a long multiphase and multicomponent tail. We have mapped the full extent of the tail at 1″ (350 pc) angular resolution and found a rich distribution of mostly compact CO regions extending to nearly 60 kpc in length and 25 kpc in width. In total, about 109 M of molecular gas was detected with ALMA. From comparison with previous APEX observations, we also infer the presence of a substantial extended molecular component in the tail. The ALMA CO features are found predominantly at the heads of numerous small-scale (∼1.5 kpc) fireballs (i.e., star-forming clouds with linear streams of young stars extending toward the galaxy) but also large-scale (∼8 kpc) superfireballs and double-sided fireballs that have additional diffuse ionized gas tails extending in the direction opposite the stellar tails. The new data help to shed light on the origin of the molecular tail; CO filaments oriented in the direction of the tail are likely young molecular features formed in situ, whereas large CO features tilted with respect to the tail may have originated from dense gas complexes that were gradually pushed away from the disk.
We revisit the main H i-to-stellar mass ratio (gas fraction) scaling relations, taking advantage of the H i spectral stacking technique to understand the dependence of gas content on the structural ...and star formation properties of nearby galaxies. This work uses a volume-limited, multiwavelength sample of ∼25 000 galaxies, selected according to stellar mass (109 M⊙ ≤ M
⋆ ≤ 1011.5 M⊙) and redshift (0.02 ≤ z ≤ 0.05) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and with H i data from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. We bin according to multiple parameters of galaxies spanning the full gas-poor to -rich regime in order to disentangle the dominance of different components and processes in influencing gas content. For the first time, we show that the scaling relations of gas fraction with stellar mass and stellar surface density are primarily driven by a combination of the underlying galaxy bimodality in specific star formation rate and the integrated Kennicutt–Schmidt law. Finally, we produce tentative evidence that the time-scales of H i depletion are dependent upon galaxy mass and structure, at fixed specific star formation rate.
For the first time, we reveal large amounts of cold molecular gas in a ram-pressure-stripped tail, out to a large "intracluster" distance from the galaxy. With the Actama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) ...telescope, we have detected super(12)CO(2-1) emission corresponding to more than 10 super(9) sub(middot in circle) of H sub(2) in three H alpha bright regions along the tail of the Norma cluster galaxy ESO 137-001, out to a projected distance of 40 kpc from the disk. ESO 137-001 has an 80 kpc long and bright X-ray tail associated with a shorter (40 kpc) and broader tail of numerous star forming HII regions. The amount of ~1.5 x 10 super(8) M sub(middot in circle) of H sub(2) found in the most distant region is similar to molecular masses of tidal dwarf galaxies, though the standard Galactic CO-to-H sub(2) factor could overestimate the H sub(2) content. Along the tail, we find the amount of molecular gas to drop, while masses of the X-ray-emitting and diffuse ionized components stay roughly constant. Moreover, the amounts of hot and cold gas are large and similar, and together nearly account for the missing gas from the disk. We find a very low SFE (tau sub(dep) > 10 super(10) yr) in the stripped gas in ESO 137-001 and suggest that this is due to a low average gas density in the tail, or turbulent heating of the interstellar medium that is induced by a ram pressure shock. The unprecedented bulk of observed H sub(2) in the ESO 137-001 tail suggests that some stripped gas may survive ram pressure stripping in the molecular phase.
PDF
