2008/08/08 by Barbara Catinella, Martha P. Haynes, Riccardo Giovanelli +2 · 78 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Physics #Radio galaxy #Redshift #Redshift survey #Sky #Star formation #Stellar mass #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/592328
published in The Astrophysical Journal 685(1), L13-L17 (IOP Publishing) · Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2008/08/08 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present the first results of a targeted survey carried out with the 305 m Arecibo telescope to detect H I line emission from galaxies at redshift z > 0.16. The targets, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey database, are noninteracting disk galaxies in relatively isolated fields. We present here the H I spectra and derived H I parameters for 10 objects detected in this pilot program. All are massive disk galaxies in the redshift interval 0.17-0.25 (i.e., 2-3 Gyr look-back time), with H I masses M H I = (3-8) × 10 10 M ☉ and high gas mass fractions (H I-to-stellar mass ratios ~ 10%-30%). Our results demonstrate the efficacy of exploiting Arecibo's large collecting area to measure the H I mass and rotational velocity of galaxies above redshift z = 0.2. In particular, this sample includes the highest redshift detections of H I emission from individual galaxies made to date. Extension of this pilot program will allow us to study the H I properties of field galaxies at cosmological distances, thus complementing ongoing radio synthesis observations of cluster samples at z ~ 0.2.