The \HI column density power spectrum of six nearby spiral galaxies

Abstract

We propose a method to determine the power spectrum of \HI column density fluctuations using radio-interferometric observations of 21-cm emission from the ISM of galaxies. We have used this to estimate the power spectra of six nearly face on nearby spiral galaxies. Earlier work has shown that these power spectra are well fitted by power laws with slopes around -1.6 across length-scales $\sim 1 \, {\rm kpc}$ to $\sim 10 \, {\rm kpc}$, the amplitude however was undetermined. In the present work we have determined the amplitude of the \HI column density power spectrum. We find that the \HI column density $N_{\rm HI}$ expressed in units of $10^{20} \, {\rm cm}^{-2}$ has mean square fluctuations in the range $\sim 0.03$ to $\sim 20$. The amplitude of the power spectrum is found to be tightly correlated with the \HI mass fraction of the galaxies. The physical process responsible for these scale-invariant fluctuations is, however, at present not known.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication; MNRAS lett. (2013