The environmental dependence of neutral hydrogen content in spiral galaxies
Abstract
We present a study of the relationship between the deficiency of neutral hydrogen and the local three-dimensional number density of spiral galaxies in the Arecibo catalog [1] of global HI measurements. We find that the dependence on density of the HI content is weak at low densities, but increases sharply at high densities where interactions between galaxies and the intra-cluster medium become important. This behavior is reminiscent of the morphology-density relation [2] in that the effect manifests itself only at cluster-type densities, and indeed when we plot both the HI deficiency-density and morphology-density relations, we see that the densities at which they ``turn up'' are similar. This suggests that the physical mechanisms responsible for the increase in early types in clusters are also responsible for the decrease in HI content.
- Publication:
-
The Evolution of Galaxies Through the Neutral Hydrogen Window
- Pub Date:
- August 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1063/1.2973582
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0804.3573
- Bibcode:
- 2008AIPC.1035..208M
- Keywords:
-
- 98.56.Ne;
- 95.80.+p;
- 06.30.Dr;
- 98.62.Py;
- 98.38.Gt;
- Spiral galaxies;
- Astronomical catalogs atlases sky surveys databases retrieval systems archives etc.;
- Mass and density;
- Distances redshifts radial velocities;
- spatial distribution of galaxies;
- HI regions and 21-cm lines;
- diffuse translucent and high-velocity clouds;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- To appear in AIP Conference Proceedings, "The Evolution of Galaxies through the Neutral Hydrogen Window", Feb 1-3 2008, Arecibo, Puerto Rico, eds. R. Minchin &