Search

We present the blind Westerbork Coma Survey probing the H I content of the Coma galaxy cluster with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. The survey covers the inner ∼1 Mpc around the cluster centre, extending out to 1.5 Mpc towards the south-western NGC 4839 group. The survey probes the atomic gas in the entire Coma volume down to a sensitivity of ∼1019 cm−2 and 108 M⊙. Combining automated source finding with source extraction at optical redshifts and visual verification, we obtained 40 H I detections of which 24 are new. Over half of the sample displays perturbed H I morphologies indicative of an ongoing interaction with the cluster environment. With the use of ancillary UV and mid-IR, data we measured their stellar masses and star formation rates and compared the H I properties to a set of field galaxies spanning a similar stellar mass and star formation rate range. We find that ∼75% of H I-selected Coma galaxies have simultaneously enhanced star formation rates (by ∼0.2 dex) and are H I deficient (by ∼0.5 dex) compared to field galaxies of the same stellar mass. According to our toy model, the simultaneous H I deficiency and enhanced star formation activity can be attributed to either H I stripping of already highly star forming galaxies on a very short timescale, while their H2 content remains largely unaffected, or to H I stripping coupled to a temporary boost of the H I-to-H2 conversion, causing a brief starburst phase triggered by ram pressure before eventually quenching the galaxy. © ESO 2022., This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 679627; project name FORNAX). JMvdH and KMH acknowledge funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 291531 (‘HIStoryNU’). LC acknowledges support from the Australian Research Councils Discovery Project and Future Fellowship funding schemes (DP210100337,FT180100066). Parts of this research were conducted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE170100013. JH acknowledges research funding from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. MV acknowledges support by the Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO) through VICI grant 016.130.338. KMH acknowledges funding from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” awarded to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709); from grant RTI2018-096228-B-C31 (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities / State Agency for Research / European Regional Development Funds, European Union); and from the coordination of the participation in SKA-SPAIN, funded by the Ministry of Science and innovation (MICIN).

Full list of authors: Namumba, B.; Koribalski, B. S.; Józsa, G. I. G.; Lee-Waddell, K.; Jones, M. G.; Carignan, C.; Verdes-Montenegro, L.; Ianjamasimanana, R.; de Blok, W. J. G.; Cluver, M.; Garrido, J.; Sánchez-Expósito, S.; Ramaila, A. J. T.; Thorat, K.; Andati, L. A. L.; Hugo, B. V.; Kleiner, D.; Kamphuis, P.; Serra, P.; Smirnov, O. M.; Maccagni, F. M.; Makhathini, S.; Molnár, D. Cs.; Perkins, S.; Ramatsoku, M.; White, S. V.; Loi, F., We report the discovery of large amounts of previously undetected cold neutral atomic hydrogen (H I) around the core triplet galaxies in the nearby NGC 7232 galaxy group with MeerKAT. With a physical resolution of ∼1 kpc, we detect a complex web of low-surface-brightness H I emission down to a 4σ column density level of ∼1 × 1019 cm−2 (over 44 km s−1). The newly discovered H I streams extend over ∼20 arcmin corresponding to 140 kpc in projection. This is approximately three times the H I extent of the galaxy triplet (52 kpc). The H I debris has an H I mass of ∼6.6 × 109 M⊙, more than 50 per cent of the total H I mass of the triplet. Within the galaxy triplet, NGC 7233 and NGC 7232 have lost a significant amount of H I while NGC 7232B appears to have an excess of H I. The H I deficiency in NGC 7232 and NGC 7233 indicates that galaxy–galaxy interaction in the group concentrates on this galaxy pair while the other disc galaxies have visited them over time. In comparison to the AMIGA sample of isolated galaxies, we find that with regards to its total H I mass the NGC 7232/3 galaxy triplet is not H I-deficient. Despite the many interactions associated to the triplet galaxies, no H I seems to have been lost from the group (yet). © 2021 The Author(s)., The MeerKAT telescope is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation. BN’s research is supported by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). We acknowledge the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) for supporting us with the data intensive cloud for data processing. IDIA is a South African university partnership involving the University of Cape Town, the University of Pretoria, and the University of the Western Cape. BN acknowledges financial support from the CSIC Program of Scientific Cooperation for Development i-COOP+2019. The research of OS is supported by the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation. PK is partially supported by the BMBF project 05A17PC2 for D-MeerKAT. LVM, MGJ, and BN acknowledge financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the ‘Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa’ award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). BN acknowledges the discussion with the AMIGA team at IAA regarding data reduction and analysis. LVM, MJ, SSE, and JG acknowledge as well support from the grants AYA2015-65973-C3-1-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE) and RTI2018-096228-B-C31 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE). MGJ fellowship was supported by a Juan de la Cierva formación fellowship. The work of WJGdB has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 882793/MeerGas). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 679627; project name FORNAX). MEC is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (project No. FT170100273) funded by the Australian Government.

We present the first interferometric blind HI survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster, which covers an area of 15 deg2 out to the cluster virial radius. The survey has a spatial and velocity resolution of 67″ × 95″(∼6 × 9 kpc at the Fornax cluster distance of 20 Mpc) and 6.6 km s−1 and a 3σ sensitivity of NHI ∼ 2 × 1019 cm−2 and MHI ∼ 2 × 107 M⊙, respectively. We detect 16 galaxies out of roughly 200 spectroscopically confirmed Fornax cluster members. The detections cover about three orders of magnitude in HI mass, from 8 × 106 to 1.5 × 1010 M⊙. They avoid the central, virialised region of the cluster both on the sky and in projected phase-space, showing that they are recent arrivals and that, in Fornax, HI is lost within a crossing time, ∼2 Gyr. Half of these galaxies exhibit a disturbed HI morphology, including several cases of asymmetries, tails, offsets between HI and optical centres, and a case of a truncated HI disc. This suggests that these recent arrivals have been interacting with other galaxies, the large-scale potential or the intergalactic medium, within or on their way to Fornax. As a whole, our Fornax HI detections are HI-poorer and form stars at a lower rate than non-cluster galaxies in the same M⋆ range. This is particularly evident at M⋆ ≲ 109 M⊙, indicating that low mass galaxies are more strongly affected throughout their infall towards the cluster. The MHI/M⋆ ratio of Fornax galaxies is comparable to that in the Virgo cluster. At fixed M⋆, our HI detections follow the non-cluster relation between MHI and the star formation rate, and we argue that this implies that thus far they have lost their HI on a timescale ≳1−2 Gyr. Deeper inside the cluster HI removal is likely to proceed faster, as confirmed by a population of HI-undetected but H2-detected star-forming galaxies. Overall, based on ALMA data, we find a large scatter in H2-to-HI mass ratio, with several galaxies showing an unusually high ratio that is probably caused by faster HI removal. Finally, we identify an HI-rich subgroup of possible interacting galaxies dominated by NGC 1365, where pre-processing is likely to have taken place.

We present MeerKAT neutral hydrogen (HI) observations of the Fornax A group, that is likely falling into the Fornax cluster for the first time. Our HI image is sensitive to 1.4 x 10$^{19}$ cm$^{-2}$ over 44.1 km s$^{-1}$, where we detect HI in 10 galaxies and a total of 1.12 x 10$^{9}$ Msol of HI in the intra-group medium (IGM). We search for signs of pre-processing in the 12 group galaxies with confirmed optical redshifts that reside within our HI image. There are 9 galaxies that show evidence of pre-processing and we classify the pre-processing status of each galaxy, according to their HI morphology and gas (atomic and molecular) scaling relations. Galaxies yet to experience pre-processing have extended HI disks, a high HI content with a H$_2$-to-HI ratio an order of magnitude lower than the median for their stellar mass. Galaxies currently being pre-processed display HI tails, truncated HI disks with typical gas ratios. Galaxies in the advanced stages of pre-processing are HI deficient. If there is any HI, they have lost their outer HI disk and efficiently converted their HI to H$_2$, resulting in H$_2$-to-HI ratios an order of magnitude higher than the median for their stellar mass. The central, massive galaxy in our group underwent a 10:1 merger 2 Gyr ago, and ejected 6.6 - 11.2 x 10$^{8}$ Msol of HI that we detect as clouds and streams in the IGM, some forming coherent structures up to 220 kpc in length. We also detect giant (100 kpc) ionised hydrogen (H$\alpha$) filaments in the IGM, likely from cool gas being removed (and ionised) from an infalling satellite. The H$\alpha$ filaments are situated within the hot halo of NGC 1316 and some regions contain HI. We speculate that the H$\alpha$ and multiphase gas is supported by magnetic pressure (possibly assisted by the AGN), such that the hot gas can condense and form HI that survives in the hot halo for cosmological timescales., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figured. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A)

Several works in the past decade have used the ratio between total (rest 8-1000$\mu$m) infrared and radio (rest 1.4~GHz) luminosity in star-forming galaxies (q$_{IR}$), often referred to as the "infrared-radio correlation" (IRRC), to calibrate radio emission as a star formation rate (SFR) indicator. Previous studies constrained the evolution of q$_{IR}$ with redshift, finding a mild but significant decline, that is yet to be understood. For the first time, we calibrate q$_{IR}$ as a function of \textit{both} stellar mass (M$_{\star}$) and redshift, starting from an M$_{\star}$-selected sample of $>$400,000 star-forming galaxies in the COSMOS field, identified via (NUV-r)/(r-J) colours, at redshifts 0.1$, Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 22 pages + Appendices. 24 figures, 4 tables

We present HI observations of the jellyfish galaxy, JO201. This massive galaxy (M$_{\ast} = 3.5 \times 10^{10}$ M$_\odot$) is falling along the line-of-sight towards the centre of a rich cluster (M$_{200} \sim 1.6 \times 10^{15}$ M$_\odot$, $\sigma_{cl} \sim 982$ km/s) at a high velocity $\geq$3363 km/s. Its H$\alpha$ emission shows a $\sim$40 kpc tail confined closely to its stellar disc and a $\sim$100 kpc tail extending further out. We find HI emission coinciding only with the shorter clumpy H$\alpha$ tail. In total, we measure an HI mass of M$_{\rm HI} = 1.65 \times 10^{9}$ M$_\odot$, which is about 60% lower than expected based on its stellar mass and stellar surface density. We compared JO201 to another jellyfish in the GASP sample, JO206 (of similar mass but residing in a 10$\times$ less massive cluster), and find that they are similarly HI-deficient. Of the total HI mass in JO201, about 30% lies outside the galaxy disc in projection. This HI fraction is probably a lower limit since most of the HI is redshifted relative to the stellar disc and could be outside the disc. The global star formation rate (SFR) analysis of JO201 suggests that its observed SFR would be expected if it had 10$\times$ its current HI mass. The disc is the main contributor of the high star formation efficiency at a given HI gas density for both galaxies, but their tails also show higher star formation efficiencies compared to the outer regions of field galaxies. Generally, we find that JO201 and JO206 are similar based on their HI content, stellar mass and star formation rate. This finding is unexpected considering their different environments. A toy model comparing the ram pressure of the ICM versus the restoring forces of these galaxies suggests that the ram pressure strength exerted on them could be comparable if we consider their 3D orbital velocities and radial distances relative to the clusters., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

We present MeerKAT 1000 MHz and 1400 MHz observations of a bright radio galaxy in the southern hemisphere, ESO~137-006. The galaxy lies at the centre of the massive and merging Norma galaxy cluster. The MeerKAT continuum images (rms ~0.02 mJy/beam at ~10" resolution) reveal new features that have never been seen in a radio galaxy before: collimated synchrotron threads of yet unknown origin, which link the extended and bent radio lobes of ESO~137-006. The most prominent of these threads stretches in projection for about 80 kpc and is about 1 kpc in width. The radio spectrum of the threads is steep, with a spectral index of up to $\alpha\simeq 2$ between 1000 MHz and 1400 MHz., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A letters

We present new observations of Fornax A taken at 1 GHz with the MeerKAT telescope and at 6 GHz with the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). The sensitive (noise ~16 micro-Jy beam$^{-1}$), high resolution ( < 10'') MeerKAT images show that the lobes of Fornax A have a double-shell morphology, where dense filaments are embedded in a diffuse and extended cocoon. We study the spectral properties of these components by combining the MeerKAT and SRT observations with archival data between 84 MHz and 217 GHz. For the first time, we show that multiple episodes of nuclear activity must have formed the extended radio lobes. The modelling of the radio spectrum suggests that the last episode of injection of relativistic particles into the lobes started ~ 24 Myr ago and stopped approximately 12 Myr ago. More recently (~ 3 Myr ago), a less powerful and short ( < 1 Myr) phase of nuclear activity generated the central jets. Currently, the core may be in a new active phase. It appears that Fornax A is rapidly flickering. The dense environment in which Fornax A lives has lead to a complex recent merger history for this galaxy, including mergers spanning a range of gas contents and mass ratios, as shown by the analysis of the galaxy's stellar- and cold-gas phases. This complex recent history may be the cause of the rapid, recurrent nuclear activity of Fornax A., Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

HE0450-2958, an interacting quasar-starburst galaxy pair at $z$ = 0.285, is one of the best known examples of strong star formation activity in the presence of a quasar-driven jet. We present new multi-band JVLA-imaging covering 1 to 6 GHz and reaching an angular resolution of up to $0{}_{{}^.}^{"}6$ (a 6-fold improvement over existing radio data). We confirm the previous detection of a spatially extended radio component around the quasar indicating that there is on-going star formation activity in the quasar host galaxy. For the first time, we directly detect a jet-like bipolar outflow from the quasar aligned with its companion star-forming galaxy (SFG) and several blobs of ionized gas in its vicinity identified in previous studies. Within the companion SFG we find evidence for a flattening of the synchrotron spectral index towards the point of intersection with the jet axis, further suggesting that the outflow may actually be impacting its interstellar medium (ISM). We discuss two possible mechanisms that could have triggered the starburst in the companion SFG: a wet-dry merger with the quasar and jet-induced star formation. While triggering through interaction-driven gas dynamics cannot be excluded with current data, our new observations make HE0450-2958 a strong candidate for jet-induced star formation, and one of the rare links between local systems (like Minkowski's Object or Centaurus A) and the high-z regime where radio-optical alignments suggest that this phenomenon could be more common., Comment: 11 pages including 5 figures, published in MNRAS