2018/08/31 by Ying Zu · 16 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Metallicity #Physics #Sky #Star formation #Stellar mass #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Universe #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/staa1457
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 496(1), 111-124 (Oxford University Press) · 14 pages, 9 figures, MNRAS published and version matched
openalex publication_date 2020/05/23 · arxiv created 2020/07/30 · arxiv updated 2020/07/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
ABSTRACT The neutral hydrogen (H i) gas is an important barometer of recent star formation and metal enrichment activities in galaxies. I develop a novel statistical method for predicting the H i-to-stellar mass ratio, f_\mathrmH \small I, of galaxies from their stellar mass and optical colour, and apply it to a volume-limited galaxy sample jointly observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. I eliminate the impact of the Malmquist bias against H i-deficient systems on the f_\mathrmH \small I predictor by properly accounting for the H i detection probability of each galaxy in the analysis. The best-fitting f_\mathrmH \small I predictor, with an estimated scatter of 0.272 dex, provides excellent description to the observed H i mass function. After defining an H i excess parameter as the deviation of the observed f_\mathrmH \small I from the expected value, I confirm that there exists a strong secondary dependence of the mass–metallicity relation on H i excess. By further examining the 2D metallicity distribution on the specific star formation rate (sSFR) versus H i excess plane, I show that the metallicity dependence on H i is likely more fundamental than that on sSFR. In addition, I find that the environmental dependence of H i in the local Universe can be effectively described by the cross-correlation coefficient between H i excess and the red galaxy overdensity ρcc = − 0.18. This weak anticorrelation also successfully explains the observed dependence of H i clustering on f_\mathrmH \small I. My method provides a useful framework for learning H i gas evolution from the synergy between future H i and optical galaxy surveys.