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1. Damped Lyα Absorbers in Star-forming Galaxies at z < 0.15 Detected with the Hubble Space Telescope and Implications for Galactic Evolution

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac5fab  

   Kulkarni, Varsha P. ; Bowen, David V. ; Straka, Lorrie A. ; York, Donald G. ; Gupta, Neeraj ; Noterdaeme, Pasquier ; Srianand, Raghunathan ( April 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We report Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph spectroscopy of 10 quasars with foreground star-forming galaxies at 0.02 < z < 0.14 within impact parameters of ∼1–7 kpc. We detect damped/sub-damped Ly α (DLA/sub-DLA) absorption in 100% of cases where no higher-redshift Lyman-limit systems extinguish the flux at the expected wavelength of Ly α absorption, obtaining the largest targeted sample of DLA/sub-DLAs in low-redshift galaxies. We present absorption measurements of neutral hydrogen and metals. Additionally, we present Green Bank Telescope 21 cm emission measurements for five of the galaxies (including two detections). Combining our sample with the literature, we construct a sample of 117 galaxies associated with DLA/sub-DLAs spanning 0 < z < 4.4, and examine trends between gas and stellar properties, and with redshift. The H i column density is anticorrelated with impact parameter and stellar mass. More massive galaxies appear to have gas-rich regions out to larger distances. The specific star formation rate (sSFR) of absorbing galaxies increases with redshift and decreases with M *, consistent with evolution of the star formation main sequence (SFMS). However, ∼20% of absorbing galaxies lie below the SFMS, indicating that some DLA/sub-DLAs trace galaxies with longer-than-typical gas-depletion timescales. Most DLA/sub-DLA galaxies with 21 cm emission have higher H i masses than typical galaxies with comparable M *. High M HI / M * ratios and high sSFRs in DLA/sub-DLA galaxies with M * < 10 9 M ⊙ suggest these galaxies may be gas-rich because of recent gas accretion rather than inefficient star formation. Our study demonstrates the power of absorption and emission studies of DLA/sub-DLA galaxies for extending galactic evolution studies to previously under-explored regimes of low M * and low SFR. 

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2. Investigating the [C ii]-to-H i Conversion Factor and the H i Gas Budget of Galaxies at z ≈ 6 with Hydrodynamic Simulations

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac982c  

   Vizgan, David ; Heintz, Kasper E. ; Greve, Thomas R. ; Narayanan, Desika ; Davé, Romeel ; Olsen, Karen P. ; Popping, Gergö ; Watson, Darach ( October 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   One of the most fundamental baryonic matter components of galaxies is the neutral atomic hydrogen (Hi). At low redshifts, this component can be traced directly through the 21 cm transition, but to infer the Higas content of the most distant galaxies, a viable tracer is needed. We here investigate the fidelity of the fine-structure transition of the (²P_3/2−²P_1/3) transition of singly ionized carbon Ciiat 158μm as a proxy for Hiin a set simulated galaxies atz≈ 6, following the work by Heintz et al. We select 11,125 star-forming galaxies from thesimbasimulations, with far-infrared line emissions postprocessed and modeled within the Sigameframework. We find a strong connection between Ciiand Hi, with the relation between this Cii-to-Hirelation (β_[CII]) being anticorrelated with the gas-phase metallicity of the simulated galaxies. We further use these simulations to make predictions for the total baryonic matter content of galaxies atz≈ 6, and specifically the Higas mass fraction. We find mean values ofM_{H I}/M_⋆= 1.4 andM_{H I}/M_bar,tot= 0.45. These results provide strong evidence for Hibeing the dominant baryonic matter component by mass in galaxies atz≈ 6.

    

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3. Molecular gas in z ∼ 6 quasar host galaxies

   https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142871  

   Decarli, Roberto ; Pensabene, Antonio ; Venemans, Bram ; Walter, Fabian ; Bañados, Eduardo ; Bertoldi, Frank ; Carilli, Chris L. ; Cox, Pierre ; Fan, Xiaohui ; Farina, Emanuele Paolo ; et al ( June 2022 , Astronomy & Astrophysics)

   We investigate the molecular gas content of z  ∼ 6 quasar host galaxies using the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique Northern Extended Millimeter Array. We targeted the 3 mm dust continuum, and the line emission from CO(6–5), CO(7–6), and [C  I ] 2−1 in ten infrared–luminous quasars that have been previously studied in their 1 mm dust continuum and [C  II ] line emission. We detected CO(7–6) at various degrees of significance in all the targeted sources, thus doubling the number of such detections in z  ∼ 6 quasars. The 3 mm to 1 mm flux density ratios are consistent with a modified black body spectrum with a dust temperature T dust  ∼ 47 K and an optical depth τ ν  = 0.2 at the [C  II ] frequency. Our study provides us with four independent ways to estimate the molecular gas mass, M H2 , in the targeted quasars. This allows us to set constraints on various parameters used in the derivation of molecular gas mass estimates, such as the mass per luminosity ratios α CO and α [CII] , the gas-to-dust mass ratio δ g/d , and the carbon abundance [C]/H 2 . Leveraging either on the dust, CO, [C  I ], or [C  II ] emission yields mass estimates of the entire sample in the range M H2  ∼ 10 10 –10 11 M ⊙ . We compared the observed luminosities of dust, [C  II ], [C  I ], and CO(7–6) with predictions from photo-dissociation and X-ray dominated regions. We find that the former provide better model fits to our data, assuming that the bulk of the emission arises from dense ( n H  > 10 4 cm −3 ) clouds with a column density N H  ∼ 10 23 cm −2 , exposed to a radiation field with an intensity of G 0  ∼ 10 3 (in Habing units). Our analysis reiterates the presence of massive reservoirs of molecular gas fueling star formation and nuclear accretion in z  ∼ 6 quasar host galaxies. It also highlights the power of combined 3 mm and 1 mm observations for quantitative studies of the dense gas content in massive galaxies at cosmic dawn. 

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4. Discovery of a Damped Lyα Absorber Originating in a Spectacular Interacting Dwarf Galaxy Pair at z = 0.026

   https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac5250  

   Boettcher, Erin ; Gupta, Neeraj ; Chen, Hsiao-Wen ; Chen, Mandy C. ; Józsa, Gyula I. G. ; Rudie, Gwen C. ; Cantalupo, Sebastiano ; Johnson, Sean D. ; Balashev, S. A. ; Combes, Françoise ; et al ( February 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal Letters)

   We present the discovery of neutral gas detected in both damped Lyαabsorption (DLA) and Hi21 cm emission outside of the stellar body of a galaxy, the first such detection in the literature. A joint analysis between the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey and the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey reveals an Hibridge connecting two interacting dwarf galaxies (log (M_star/M_⊙) = 8.5 ± 0.2) that host az= 0.026 DLA with log[N(Hi)/cm⁻²] = 20.60 ± 0.05 toward the QSO J2339−5523 (z_QSO= 1.35). At impact parameters ofd= 6 and 33 kpc, the dwarf galaxies have no companions more luminous than ≈0.05L_*within at least Δv= ±300 km s⁻¹andd≈ 350 kpc. The Hi21 cm emission is spatially coincident with the DLA at the 2σ–3σlevel per spectral channel over several adjacent beams. However, Hi21 cm absorption is not detected against the radio-bright QSO; if the background UV and radio sources are spatially aligned, the gas is either warm or clumpy (with a spin temperature to covering factor ratioT_s/f_c> 1880 K). Observations with VLT-MUSE demonstrate that theα-element abundance of the ionized interstellar medium (ISM) is consistent with the DLA (≈10% solar), suggesting that the neutral gas envelope is perturbed ISM gas. This study showcases the impact of dwarf–dwarf interactions on the physical and chemical state of neutral gas outside of star-forming regions. In the SKA era, joint UV and Hi21 cm analyses will be critical for connecting the cosmic neutral gas content to galaxy environments.

    

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5. Tracing Molecular Gas Mass in z ≃ 6 Galaxies with [C ii]

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac5cba  

   Vizgan, D. ; Greve, T. R. ; Olsen, K. P. ; Zanella, A. ; Narayanan, D. ; Davè, R. ; Magdis, G. E. ; Popping, G. ; Valentino, F. ; Heintz, K. E. ( April 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   We investigate the fine-structure [Cii] line at 158μm as a molecular gas tracer by analyzing the relationship between molecular gas mass (M_mol) and [Cii] line luminosity (L_[CII]) in 11,125z≃ 6 star-forming, main-sequence galaxies from thesimbasimulations, with line emission modeled by the Simulator of Galaxy Millimeter/Submillimeter Emission. Though most (∼50%–100%) of the gas mass in our simulations is ionized, the bulk (>50%) of the [Cii] emission comes from the molecular phase. We find a sublinear (slope 0.78 ± 0.01)$\log L_{[\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}]}–\log M_{\mathrm{mol}}$relation, in contrast with the linear relation derived from observational samples of more massive, metal-rich galaxies atz≲ 6. We derive a median [Cii]-to-M_molconversion factor ofα_[CII]≃ 18M_⊙/L_⊙. This is lower than the average value of ≃30M_⊙/L_⊙derived from observations, which we attribute to lower gas-phase metallicities in our simulations. Thus, a lower, luminosity-dependent conversion factor must be applied when inferring molecular gas masses from [Cii] observations of low-mass galaxies. For our simulations, [Cii] is a better tracer of the molecular gas than COJ= 1–0, especially at the lowest metallicities, where much of the gas isCO-dark. We find thatL_[CII]is more tightly correlated withM_molthan with star formation rate (SFR), and both the$\log L_{[\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}]}–\log M_{\mathrm{mol}}$and$\log L_{[\mathrm{C}\mathrm{II}]}–\log \mathrm{SFR}$relations arise from the Kennicutt–Schmidt relation. Our findings suggest thatL_[CII]is a promising tracer of the molecular gas at the earliest cosmic epochs.

    

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