HI superprofiles of galaxies from THINGS and LITTLE THINGS

  • Kim, Minsu (Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Sejong University) ;
  • Oh, Se-Heon (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sejong University)
  • 발행 : 2021.10.13

초록

We present a novel profile stacking technique based on optimal profile decomposition of a 3D spectral line data cube, and its performance test using the HI data cubes of sample galaxies from HI galaxy surveys, THINGS and LITTLE THINGS. Compared to the previous approach which aligns all the spectra of a cube using their central velocities derived from either moment analysis, single Gaussian or hermite h3 polynomial fitting, the new method makes a profile decomposition of the profiles from which an optimal number of single Gaussian components is derived for each profile. The so-called superprofile which is derived by co-adding all the aligned profiles from which the other Gaussian models are subtracted is found to have weaker wings compared to the ones constructed in a typical manner. This could be due to the reduced number of asymmetric profiles in the new method. A practical test made on the HI data cubes of the THINGS and LITTLE THINGS galaxies shows that our new method can extract more mass of kinematically cold HI components in the galaxies than the previous results. Additionally, we fit a double Gaussian model to the superprofiles whose S/N is boosted, and quantify not only their profile shapes but derive the ratio of the Gaussian model parameters, such as the intensity ratio and velocity dispersion ratio of the narrower and broader Gaussian components. We discuss how the superprofile properties of the sample galaxies are correlated with their other physical properties, including star formation rate, stellar mass, metallicity, and gas mass.

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