The Local Group L-band Survey: The First Measurements of Localized Cold Neutral Medium Properties in the Low-metallicity Dwarf Galaxy NGC 6822

Measuring the properties of the cold neutral medium (CNM) in low-metallicity galaxies provides insights into heating and cooling mechanisms in early Universe-like environments. We report detections of two localized atomic neutral hydrogen (H i ) absorption features in NGC 6822, a low-metallicity (0....

詳細記述

書誌詳細
出版年:The Astrophysical Journal
主要な著者: Nickolas M. Pingel, Hongxing Chen, Snežana Stanimirović, Eric W. Koch, Adam K. Leroy, Erik Rosolowsky, Chang-Goo Kim, Julianne J. Dalcanton, Fabian Walter, Michael P. Busch, Ryan Chown, Jennifer Donovan Meyer, Cosima Eibensteiner, Deidre A. Hunter, Sumit K. Sarbadhicary, Elizabeth Tarantino, Vicente Villanueva, Thomas G. Williams
フォーマット: 論文
言語:英語
出版事項: IOP Publishing 2024-01-01
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オンライン・アクセス:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad6604
その他の書誌記述
要約:Measuring the properties of the cold neutral medium (CNM) in low-metallicity galaxies provides insights into heating and cooling mechanisms in early Universe-like environments. We report detections of two localized atomic neutral hydrogen (H i ) absorption features in NGC 6822, a low-metallicity (0.2 Z _⊙ ) dwarf galaxy in the Local Group. These are the first unambiguous CNM detections in a low-metallicity dwarf galaxy outside the Magellanic Clouds. The Local Group L -band Survey (LGLBS) enabled these detections, due to its high spatial (15 pc for H i emission) and spectral (0.4 km s ^−1 ) resolution. We introduce LGLBS and describe a custom pipeline for searching for H i absorption at high angular resolution and extracting associated H i emission. A detailed Gaussian decomposition and radiative transfer analysis of the NGC 6822 detections reveals five CNM components, with key properties: a mean spin temperature of 32 ± 6 K, a mean CNM column density of 3.1 × 10 ^20 cm ^−2 , and CNM mass fractions of 0.33 and 0.12 for the two sightlines. Stacking nondetections does not reveal low-level signals below our median optical depth sensitivity of 0.05. One detection intercepts a star-forming region, with the H i absorption profile encompassing the CO (2−1) emission, indicating coincident molecular gas and a depression in high-resolution H i emission. We also analyze a nearby sightline with deep, narrow H i self-absorption dips, where the background warm neutral medium is attenuated by intervening CNM. The association of CNM, CO, and H α emissions suggests a close link between the colder, denser H i phase and star formation in NGC 6822.
ISSN:1538-4357