Prediction of the Statistical Robustness of the Measurement of Neutral Hydrogen Mass Functions in the COSMOS H i Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES)
Abstract
Hydrogen is the fuel for star formation, but relatively little is known about the role of cold gas in galaxy evolution. The COSMOS H I Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES) is an on-going deep H I survey being conducted with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, probing a 0.5 degree region within the COSMOS field in the 21cm line of neutral hydrogen. CHILES is the first survey to observe H I in emission from z=0 to z~0.5, which corresponds to a look-back time of ~ 5 Gyr. This allows us to observe the content, morphology and kinematics of H I in relation to stellar disks, and how it may have evolved over this period. Here, we present a simulation of the galaxy detections that could be made by the survey, based on multi-wavelength data from the COSMOS dataset in the VLA field of view.We use the simulated data to calculate the Neutral Hydrogen Mass Function (HIMF), which describes the space density of galaxies as a function of their H I mass. The HIMF has been studied in the local universe, but seeing how it changes in redshift and environment can constrain current models of galaxy formation. We show the robustness of the HIMF we are capable of deriving for the entire survey and as a function of redshift and environment.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #229
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AAS...22934732S