HI Spatial Distribution in the Galaxy NGC 3783

Abstract

We have mapped the emission from atomic hydrogen at 21 cm from the galaxy NGC 3783 with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Our main results are: a) the HI morphology is irregular and perturbed, gathered in three blobs apparently unrelated to the optical morphology; b) the observed HI velocity distribution indicates a normal disk in differential rotation with a constant velocity out to a radius of 160'' (30 kpc), c) the inclination of the disk is about 25 deg with the kinematic major axis at a position angle slightly different from that of the stellar bar, d) the HI mass inside a radius of 18'' is only 2.1 10^7 Msun, the total HI mass within 180'' is 1.1 10^9 Msun and the dynamical mass is 2 10^{11} Msun. The bulk of the gas in NGC 3783 is outside the diameter of the stellar bar; e) Numerical simulations of the gas flow in the barred potential derived from the red image indicate that the pattern speed is Omega_p = 38 km/s/kpc: the ring of Halpha emitting regions encircling the bar would then correspond to UHR, and the Halpha accumulation in the center to a nuclear ring. Various possibilities are discussed to account for the active nucleus fuelling.