Nearby Galaxies

Bait et al. report the discovery using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope of an extremely large (diameter approximately 115 kpc) neutral hydrogen (HI) ring, off-centred from a massive quenched galaxy, AGC 203001. The ring does not have a bright extended optical counterpart unlike several other known ring galaxies. Bait et al. present deep g-, r-, and i-band optical imaging of the HI ring, using the MegaCam instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, which shows several regions with faint optical emission at a surface brightness level of approximately 28 mag. per square arcsec. Such extended HI structures are rare, with only one other case known so far -- the Leo ring. Conventionally, off-centred rings have been explained by a collision with an ``intruder'' galaxy, leading to expanding density waves of gas and stars in the form of a ring. However, in such a scenario the impact also leads to large amounts of star formation in the ring which is not observed in the ring presented in this paper. Alternatively, such a ring could also form due to tidal interactions with a neighbouring galaxy or even major mergers. The exact physical mechanism for the formation of such rings is still under debate.

Blueberry galaxies are the low-redshift faint counterparts of the recently discovered class of Green Pea galaxies. These galaxies are often considered to be the local analogs of the high-redshift Ly-alpha emitters, which are thought to have contributed to the reionization of the Universe. Sebastian and Bait observed ten of the brightest blueberry galaxies from the sample of Yang et al. (2017), using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) at 1.25 GHz. Nine of the blueberries were detected in the uGMRT continuum images. However, the 1.25 GHz continuum flux densities were lower by a factor of approximately 3.4 compared to the values expected from scaling relations obtained from normal star-forming galaxies. Possible explanations for the lower radio flux densities in blueberries include a deficit of cosmic ray electrons (CREs) or low values of magnetic fields due to the young ages of these galaxies and the escape of the CREs via diffusion or outflows; it is not possible to distinguish between these models with the current data. Sebastian and Bait also calculated the value of magnetic fields in the blueberries, and found that, despite their young ages, the blueberries show magnetic fields that are larger than those seen in galaxies with large-scale ordered rotation. They hence suggest that small-scale dynamo mechanisms play an important role in the magnetic field amplification in blueberry galaxies. The left panel of the figure shows the uGMRT 1.25 GHz image (in contours) of one of the blueberry galaxies, overlaid on an optical grz-band colour composite image. The right panel shows the star formation rates (SFRs) derived from the uGMRT radio continuum flux densities for the 9 blueberries plotted against the SFRs derived from H-alpha emission; it is clear that the radio SFRs are significantly lower than the H-alpha SFRs, by a factor of around 3.

Mass and specific angular momentum are two fundamental physical parameters of galaxies. Kurapati et al. (2018) use high-resolution HI 21cm observations and broad band photometry to measure the baryonic mass (M) and baryonic specific angular momentum (j) of 11 dwarf galaxies that lie in the Lynx-Cancer void. They find that the specific angular momentum of void dwarf galaxies is similar to that of other dwarf galaxies in average density environments. However, all dwarf galaxies (regardless of environment) have significantly higher specific angular momentum than expected from an extrapolation of the relation between specific angular momentum and baryonic mass for large spiral galaxies. The figure shows the difference between the observed specific angular momentum of dwarf galaxies and the specific angular momentum expected from the bulge-less spiral relation, as a function of baryonic mass. The elevation in specific angular momentum occurs for dwarf galaxies with masses lower than roughly a billion solar masses. Galaxies above this mass threshold have relatively low baryonic specific angular momenta, following the relation obtained for massive galaxies with zero bulge fraction. Interestingly, the above mass threshold is very similar to the mass below which galaxy discs start to become systematically thick. Kurapati et al. examine the possibility that both these effects, viz. the thickening of disks and the increase in specific angular momentum, are results of feedback from star formation. Such feedback would preferentially remove the low angular momentum gas from the central parts of dwarfs (thus increasing the specific angular momentum of the system) and also inject mechanical energy into the system, leading to thicker discs. They find however, that the observed amount of observed star formation in their sample galaxies is insufficient to produce the observed increase in the specific angular momentum. It hence appears that some other, as yet unknown mechanism, plays a role in producing the observed enhancement in specific angular momentum.

A galaxy's spin is intricately connected to its morphology --- spiral galaxies spin faster and hence are thinner whereas elliptical galaxies have lower specific angular momentum and are puffier. The mass and the angular momentum of a galaxy are related via their evolutionary history. Various researchers in the past have reported a power-law scaling relation between the mass and the specific angular momentum of large spiral galaxies. Chowdhury and Chengalur used archival GMRT, VLA and WSRT HI 21cm data of five gas-rich dwarf galaxies and found that the specific angular momentum in these smaller, less massive, dwarf galaxies is significantly higher than that expected from the earlier studies of spiral disks. The figure shows the location of these dwarf galaxies in the specific angular momentum - mass plane, and compares them with the distribution of spiral galaxies. All the five gas-rich dwarf galaxies lie outside the 95% probability band of the relation for spiral galaxies. The chance probability that the dwarf galaxies belong to the same angular momentum - mass distribution as the spirals is less than one part in a million. The authors suggest two mechanisms through which the dwarfs may acquire their higher specific angular momentum: (i) preferential outflow of low angular momentum gas due to stellar feedback, and (ii) cosmic cold mode accretion, which is known to dominate in less massive galaxies.