TY - JOUR
T1 - DISTRIBUTION of COLD (≲300 K) ATOMIC GAS in GALAXIES
T2 - RESULTS from the GBT H
AU - Borthakur, Sanchayeeta
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - We present the Green Bank Telescope absorption survey of cold atomic hydrogen (≲300 K) in the inner halo of low-redshift galaxies. The survey aims to characterize the cold gas distribution and to address where the condensation - the process where ionized gas accreted by galaxies condenses into cold gas within the disks of galaxies - occurs. Our sample consists of 16 galaxy-quasar pairs with impact parameters of ≤20 kpc. We detected an H i absorber associated with J0958+3222 (NGC 3067) and H i emission from six galaxies. We also found two Ca ii absorption systems in the archival SDSS data associated with galaxies J0958+3222 and J1228+3706. Our detection rate of H i absorbers with optical depths of ≥0.06 is ∼7%. We also find that the cold H i phase (≲300 K) is 44(18)% of the total atomic gas in the sightline probing J0958+3222. We find no correlation between the peak optical depth and impact parameter or stellar and H i radii normalized impact parameters, ρ/R 90 and ρ/R H i. We conclude that the process of condensation of inflowing gas into cold (≲300 K) H i occurs at the ρ ≪ 20 kpc. However, the warmer phase of neutral gas (T ∼ 1000 K) can exist out to much larger distances, as seen in emission maps. Therefore, the process of condensation of warm to cold H i is likely occurring in stages from ionized to warm H i in the inner halo and then to cold H i very close to the galaxy disk.
AB - We present the Green Bank Telescope absorption survey of cold atomic hydrogen (≲300 K) in the inner halo of low-redshift galaxies. The survey aims to characterize the cold gas distribution and to address where the condensation - the process where ionized gas accreted by galaxies condenses into cold gas within the disks of galaxies - occurs. Our sample consists of 16 galaxy-quasar pairs with impact parameters of ≤20 kpc. We detected an H i absorber associated with J0958+3222 (NGC 3067) and H i emission from six galaxies. We also found two Ca ii absorption systems in the archival SDSS data associated with galaxies J0958+3222 and J1228+3706. Our detection rate of H i absorbers with optical depths of ≥0.06 is ∼7%. We also find that the cold H i phase (≲300 K) is 44(18)% of the total atomic gas in the sightline probing J0958+3222. We find no correlation between the peak optical depth and impact parameter or stellar and H i radii normalized impact parameters, ρ/R 90 and ρ/R H i. We conclude that the process of condensation of inflowing gas into cold (≲300 K) H i occurs at the ρ ≪ 20 kpc. However, the warmer phase of neutral gas (T ∼ 1000 K) can exist out to much larger distances, as seen in emission maps. Therefore, the process of condensation of warm to cold H i is likely occurring in stages from ionized to warm H i in the inner halo and then to cold H i very close to the galaxy disk.
KW - galaxies: ISM
KW - galaxies: halos
KW - quasars: absorption lines
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U2 - 10.3847/0004-637X/829/2/128
DO - 10.3847/0004-637X/829/2/128
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84990889941
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 829
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 128
ER -