HI Imaging of a Blueberry Galaxy Suggests a Merger Origin

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Dutta, Saili, Bera, Apurba, Bait, Omkar, Narayan, Chaitra A., Sebastian, Biny, Vaddi, Sravani
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911914543546368
author Dutta, Saili
Bera, Apurba
Bait, Omkar
Narayan, Chaitra A.
Sebastian, Biny
Vaddi, Sravani
author_facet Dutta, Saili
Bera, Apurba
Bait, Omkar
Narayan, Chaitra A.
Sebastian, Biny
Vaddi, Sravani
contents Blueberry galaxies (BBs) are fainter, less massive, and lower redshift counterparts of the Green pea galaxies. They are thought to be the nearest analogues of the high redshift Lyman Alpha (Ly$α$) emitters. We report the interferometric imaging of HI 21 cm emission from a Blueberry galaxy, J1509+3731, at redshift, z = 0.03259, using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). We find that this Blueberry galaxy has an HI mass of $M_{\text{HI}} \approx 3\times 10^8 \, M_{\odot}$ and an HI-to-stellar mass ratio $M_{\text{HI}}/M_* \approx$ 2.4. Using SFR estimates from the H$β$ emission line, we find that it has a short HI depletion time scale of $\approx 0.2$ Gyr, which indicates a significantly higher star-formation efficiency compared to typical star-forming galaxies at the present epoch. Interestingly, we find an offset of $\approx 2$ kpc between the peak of the HI 21 cm emission and the optical centre which suggests a merger event in the past. Our study highlights the important role of mergers in triggering the starburst in BBs and their role in the possible leakage of Lyman-$α$ and Lyman-continuum photons which is consistent with the previous studies on BB galaxies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_08341
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle HI Imaging of a Blueberry Galaxy Suggests a Merger Origin
Dutta, Saili
Bera, Apurba
Bait, Omkar
Narayan, Chaitra A.
Sebastian, Biny
Vaddi, Sravani
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Blueberry galaxies (BBs) are fainter, less massive, and lower redshift counterparts of the Green pea galaxies. They are thought to be the nearest analogues of the high redshift Lyman Alpha (Ly$α$) emitters. We report the interferometric imaging of HI 21 cm emission from a Blueberry galaxy, J1509+3731, at redshift, z = 0.03259, using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). We find that this Blueberry galaxy has an HI mass of $M_{\text{HI}} \approx 3\times 10^8 \, M_{\odot}$ and an HI-to-stellar mass ratio $M_{\text{HI}}/M_* \approx$ 2.4. Using SFR estimates from the H$β$ emission line, we find that it has a short HI depletion time scale of $\approx 0.2$ Gyr, which indicates a significantly higher star-formation efficiency compared to typical star-forming galaxies at the present epoch. Interestingly, we find an offset of $\approx 2$ kpc between the peak of the HI 21 cm emission and the optical centre which suggests a merger event in the past. Our study highlights the important role of mergers in triggering the starburst in BBs and their role in the possible leakage of Lyman-$α$ and Lyman-continuum photons which is consistent with the previous studies on BB galaxies.
title HI Imaging of a Blueberry Galaxy Suggests a Merger Origin
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.08341