Distribution and kinematics of atomic and molecular gas inside the Solar circle

The detailed distribution and kinematics of the atomic and the CO-bright molecular hydrogen in the disc of the Milky Way inside the Solar circle are derived under the assumptions of axisymmetry and pure circular motions. We divide the Galactic disc into a series of rings, and assume that the gas in each ring is described by four parameters: its rotation velocity, velocity dispersion, midplane density and its scale height. We fit these parameters to the Galactic HI and CO (J=1-0) data by producing artificial HI and CO line-profiles and comparing them with the observations. Our approach allows us to fit all parameters to the data simultaneously without assuming a-priori a radial profile for one of the parameters. We present the distribution and kinematics of the HI and H2 in both the approaching (QIV) and the receding (QI) regions of the Galaxy. Our best-fit models reproduces remarkably well the observed HI and CO longitude-velocity diagrams up to a few degrees of distance from the midplane. With the exception of the innermost 2.5 kpc, QI and QIV show very similar kinematics. The rotation curves traced by the HI and H2 follow closely each other, flattening beyond R=6.5 kpc. Both the HI and the H2 surface densities show a) a deep depression at 0.5<R<2.5 kpc, analogous to that shown by some nearby barred galaxies, b) local overdensities that can be interpreted in terms of spiral arms or ring-like features in the disk. The HI (H2) properties are fairly constant in the region outside the depression, with typical velocity dispersion of 8.9+/-1.1 (4.4+/-1.2) km/s, density of 0.43+/-0.11 (0.42+/-0.22) cm-3 and HWHM scale height of 202+/-28 (64+/-12) pc. We also show that the HI opacity in the LAB data can be accounted for by using an `effective' spin temperature of about 150 K: assuming an optically thin regime leads to underestimate the HI mass by about 30%.Comment: 23 pages, 24 figures. Accepted by A&

The Westerbork HI Survey of Spiral and Irregular Galaxies I. HI Imaging of Late-type Dwarf Galaxies

Neutral hydrogen observations with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope are presented for a sample of 73 late-type dwarf galaxies. These observations are part of the WHISP project (Westerbork HI Survey of Spiral and Irregular Galaxies). Here we present HI maps, velocity fields, global profiles and radial surface density profiles of HI, as well as HI masses, HI radii and line widths. For the late-type galaxies in our sample, we find that the ratio of HI extent to optical diameter, defined as 6.4 disk scale lengths, is on average 1.8+-0.8, similar to that seen in spiral galaxies. Most of the dwarf galaxies in this sample are rich in HI, with a typical M_HI/L_B of 1.5. The relative HI content M_HI/L_R increases towards fainter absolute magnitudes and towards fainter surface brightnesses. Dwarf galaxies with lower average HI column densities also have lower average optical surface brightnesses. We find that lopsidedness is as common among dwarf galaxies as it is in spiral galaxies. About half of the dwarf galaxies in our sample have asymmetric global profiles, a third has a lopsided HI distribution, and about half shows signs of kinematic lopsidedness.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 18 pages. 39 MB version with all figures is available http://www.robswork.net/publications/WHISPI.ps.g

IC 4200: a gas-rich early-type galaxy formed via a major merger

We present the result of radio and optical observations of the S0 galaxy IC 4200. We find that the galaxy hosts 8.5 billion solar masses of HI rotating on a ~90 deg warped disk extended out to 60 kpc from the centre of the galaxy. Optical spectroscopy reveals a simple-stellar-population-equivalent age of 1.5 Gyr in the centre of the galaxy and V- and R-band images show stellar shells. Ionised gas is observed within the stellar body and is kinematically decoupled from the stars and characterised by LINER-like line ratios.We interpret these observational results as evidence for a major merger origin of IC 4200, and date the merger back to 1-3 Gyr ago.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics; 18 pages, 13 figures; the tables of Appendix C can be downloaded at http://www.astro.rug.nl/~pserra/IC420

A blind H i survey in the Canes Venatici region

We have carried out a blind H i survey using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope to make an inventory of objects with small H i masses (between 106 and 108 M⊙) and to constrain the low-mass end of the H i mass function. The survey has been conducted in a part of the volume containing the nearby Canes Venatici groups of galaxies. The surveyed region covers an area on the sky of about 86 deg2 and a range in velocity from about −450 to about 1330 km s−1. We find 70 sources in the survey by applying an automated searching algorithm. Two of the detections have not been catalogued previously, but they can be assigned an optical counterpart, based on visual inspection of the second-generation Digital Sky Survey images. Only one of the H i detections is without an optical counterpart. This object is detected in the vicinity of NGC 4822, and it has been already detected in previous H i studies. 19 of the objects have been detected for the first time in the 21-cm emission line in this survey. The distribution of the H i properties of our detections confirms our ability to find low-mass objects. 86 per cent of the detections have profile widths less than 130 km s−1, and they can be considered dwarf galaxy candidates. The H i fluxes measured imply that this survey goes about 10 times deeper than any previous blind H i survey. The H i mass function and the optical properties of the detected sources will be discussed in future paper

From gas to galaxies

The unsurpassed sensitivity and resolution of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) will make it possible for the first time to probe the continuum emission of normal star forming galaxies out to the edges of the universe. This opens the possibility for routinely using the radio continuum emission from galaxies for cosmological research as it offers an independent probe of the evolution of the star formation density in the universe. In addition it offers the possibility to detect the first star forming objects and massive black holes. In deep surveys SKA will be able to detect HI in emission out to redshifts of $z \approx 2.5$ and hence be able to trace the conversion of gas into stars over an era where considerable evolution is taking place. Such surveys will be able to uniquely determine the respective importance of merging and accreting gas flows for galaxy formation over this redshift range (i.e. out to when the universe was only one third its present age). It is obvious that only SKA will able to see literally where and how gas is turned into stars. These and other aspects of SKA imaging of galaxies will be discussed.Comment: To be published in New Astronomy Reviews, Elsevier, Amsterdam as part of "Science with the Square Kilometre Array", eds. C. Carilli and S. Rawlings. 18 pages + 13 figures; high resolution version and other chapters of "Science with the Square Kilometre Array" available at http://www.skatelescope.org/pages/science_gen.ht

Tidal Remnants and Intergalactic HII Regions

We report the discovery of two small intergalactic HII regions in the loose group of galaxies around the field elliptical NGC 1490. The HII regions are located at least 100 kpc from any optical galaxy but are associated with a number of large HI clouds that are lying along an arc 500 kpc in length and that have no optical counterpart on the Digital Sky Survey. The sum of the HI masses of the clouds is almost 10^10 M_sun and the largest HI cloud is about 100 kpc in size. Deep optical imaging reveals a very low surface brightness counterpart to this largest HI cloud, making this one of the HI richest optical galaxies known (M_HI/L_V~200). Spectroscopy of the HII regions indicates that the abundance in these HII regions is only slightly sub-solar, excluding a primordial origin of the HI clouds. The HI clouds are perhaps remnants resulting from the tidal disruption of a reasonably sized galaxy, probably quite some time ago, by the loose group to which NGC1490 belongs. Alternatively, they are remnants of the merger that created the field elliptical NGC1490. The isolated HII regions show that star formation on a very small scale can occur in intergalactic space in gas drawn from galaxies by tidal interactions. Many such intergalactic small star formation regions may exist near tidally interacting galaxies.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the IAU Symposium #217, Recycling Intergalactic and Interstellar Matter, eds. P.-A. Duc, J. Braine, and E. Brinks, 6 pages with low resolution figures. The full paper with high resolution images can be downloaded from http://www.astron.nl/~morganti/Papers/cloud.ps.g