arXiv subjects

Martin Zwaan

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Zwaan.

43 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2001

Hydrogen 21-Centimeter Emission from a Galaxy at Cosmological Distance

We have detected the neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) emission line at a cosmologically significant distance (z=0.18) in the rich galaxy cluster Abell 2218 with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. The HI emission originates in a spiral galaxy 2.0 megaparsecs from the cluster core. No other significant detections have been made in the cluster, suggesting that the mechanisms that remove neutral gas from cluster galaxies are efficient. We infer that fewer than three gas-rich galaxies were accreted by Abell 2218 over the past 10^9 years. This low accretion rate is qualitatively consistent with low-density cosmological models in which clusters are largely assembled at z>1.

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arXiv2001

Reconciling Damped Ly-alpha Statistics and 21cm Studies at z=0

Blind 21cm surveys in the local universe have shown that the local HI mass density, Omega_HI, is dominated by luminous, high surface brightness, spiral galaxies. On the other hand, surveys for host galaxies of damped Ly-alpha systems have not always been successful in finding bright spiral galaxies. From an analysis of 21cm aperture synthesis maps of nearby galaxies we show that this apparent contradiction can be resolved by realizing that the HI mass density is dominated by L* galaxies, but the HI cross section near the DLA threshold is more evenly distributed over galaxies with a large range in luminosity, gas mass, and surface brightness. The distributions of column densities and impact parameters of optically identified and non-identified DLA host galaxies in the literature and the HI maps are qualitatively in agreement. Due to poor number statistics of low redshift DLA systems, there is no firm indication that the redshift number count of low redshift DLA systems is inconsistent with that calculated from the nearby galaxy population.

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arXiv2001

A Targeted Survey for HI Clouds in Galaxy Groups

Five galaxy groups with properties similar to those of the Local Group have been surveyed for HI clouds with the Arecibo Telescope. In total 300 pointings have been observed on grids of approximately 2.5 x 1.5 Mpc centred on the groups. The 4.5 sigma detection limit on the minimal detectable HI masses is approximately 7 x 10^6 M_sun (H_0=65). All detections could be attributed to optical galaxies; no significant detections of HI clouds have been made. This null result leads to the conclusion that the total HI mass of intragroup clouds must be less than 10 per cent of the total HI mass of galaxy groups and less than 0.05 per cent of the dynamical mass. The recent hypothesis that Galactic high velocity clouds are Local Group satellite galaxies is highly inconsistent with these observations.

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arXiv2000

The HI mass function in Ursa Major

A deep blind HI survey of the nearby spiral rich Ursa Major cluster has been performed with the VLA in parallel with a wide-field R-band imaging campaign of most VLA fields with the CFHT. The goal is to measure the slope of the HI mass function down to HI masses of 10^7 Msun as well as the slope of the faint-end of the luminosity function down to M(R)=-10. The VLA survey sampled 16% of the Ursa Major cluster volume. Both the HIMF and the LF in Ursa Major are nearly flat at their faint-ends. No free- floating HI clouds were detected.

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arXiv1999

The HI Column Density Distribution Function at z=0: the Connection to Damped Ly alpha Statistics

We present a measurement of the HI column density distribution function, f(N), at the present epoch for column densities log N > 20 cm^-2. These high column densities compare to those measured in damped Ly alpha lines seen in absorption against background quasars. Although observationally rare, it appears that the bulk of the neutral gas in the Universe is associated with these damped Ly alpha systems. In order to obtain a good anchor point at z=0 we determine f(N) in the local Universe by using 21cm synthesis observations of a complete sample of spiral galaxies. We show that f(N) for damped Ly alpha systems has changed significantly from high z to the present and that change is greatest for the highest column densities. The measurements indicate that low surface brightness galaxies make a minor contribution to the cross section for HI, especially for log N > 21^-2.

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arXiv1998

The Local HI Mass Function

The local HI mass function (HIMF), like the optical luminosity function, is an important observational input into models of cosmology and galaxy evolution. It is a helpful framework for assessing the number density of gas rich dwarf galaxies, which are easily missed in optically selected galaxy samples, as well as for determining the cosmological density of neutral gas at the present epoch. For HI masses larger than 10^8 M_solar the HIMF is determined with reasonable accuracy and the same function is obtained from both optical and HI selected samples of galaxies. However, the faint tail below M_HI = 10^7 M_solar is still ill-constrained and leaves room for a population of gas rich dwarfs or free floating HI clouds which hypothetically could contribute significantly to the local gas density. Determining the faint tail far below HI masses of 10^7 M_solar will be a great challenge for the future.

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arXiv1997

The HI Mass Function of Galaxies from a Deep Survey in the 21cm Line

The HI mass function (HIMF) for galaxies in the local universe is constructed from the results of the Arecibo HI Strip Survey, a blind extragalactic survey in the 21cm line. The survey consists of two strips covering in total 65 square degrees of sky, with a depth of cz = 7400 km/s and was optimized to detect column densities of neutral gas N_HI > 10^18 cm^-2 (5 sigma). The survey yielded 66 significant extragalactic signals of which approximately 50% are cataloged galaxies. No free floating HI clouds without stars are found. VLA follow-up observations of all signals have been used to obtain better measurements of the positions and fluxes and allow an alternate determination of the achieved survey sensitivity. The resulting HIMF has a shallow faint end slope (alpha ~ 1.2), and is consistent with earlier estimates computed for the population of optically selected gas rich galaxies. This implies that there is not a large population of gas rich low luminosity or low surface brightness galaxies that has gone unnoticed by optical surveys. The cosmological mass density of HI at the present time determined from the survey, Omega_HI = (2.0 +/- 0.5) x 10^-4, is in good agreement with earlier estimates. We determine lower limits to the average column densities of the galaxies detected in the survey and find that none of the galaxies have below 10^19.7 cm^-2, although there are no observational selection criteria against finding lower density systems.

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