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E. M. Wilcots (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
The combination of wide-field imaging and sensitive single-pointing observations in the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen has uncovered a wealth of neutral gas lurking in the immediate environments of a number of galaxies in the field and in groups. Sorting through the various detections of gas around galaxies, one finds that far-flung gas tends to come in three flavors, one of which is tidal in origin while the others very likely offer insight and limits to the processes by which galaxies formed in the first place.
This talk focuses on extended HI around a sample of nearby star-forming irregular galaxies, in the environments of extremely isolated galaxies, and in the intragroup medium of poor groups of galaxies. The results of these surveys show that external perturbations are needed to allow galaxies to tap into their extended HI reservoirs and indicate that the HI mass function is flat in low density environments, precluding the existence of large numbers of gas-rich mini-halos.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ewilcots@astro.wisc.edu
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.