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Neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) gas evolution in field galaxies at z ~ 0.1 and 0.2

, , , , , , and . (2013)cite arxiv:1308.1462Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted by MNRAS.

Abstract

We measure the neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) gas content of field galaxies at intermediate redshifts of z ~ 0.1 and z ~ 0.2 using hydrogen 21-cm emission lines observed with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). In order to make high signal-to-noise ratio detections, an HI signal stacking technique is applied: HI emission spectra from multiple galaxies, optically selected by the CNOC2 redshift survey project, are co-added to measure the average HI mass of galaxies in the two redshift bins. We calculate the cosmic HI gas densities (Ømega_HI) at the two redshift regimes and compare those with measurements at other redshifts to investigate the global evolution of the HI gas density over cosmic time. From a total of 59 galaxies at z ~ 0.1 we find Ømega_HI = (0.33 $\pm$ 0.05) ~ $\times$ 10$^-3$, and at z ~ 0.2 we find Ømega_HI = (0.34 $\pm$ 0.09) ~ $\times$ 10$^-3$, based on 96 galaxies. These measurements help bridge the gap between high-z damped Lyman-$\alpha$ observations and blind 21-cm surveys at $z=$ 0. We find that our measurements of Ømega_HI at z ~ 0.1 and 0.2 are consistent with the HI gas density at z ~ 0 and that all measurements of Ømega_HI from 21-cm emission observations at $z ła$ ~ 0.2 are in agreement with no evolution of the HI gas content in galaxies during the last 2.4 Gyr.

Description

[1308.1462] Neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) gas evolution in field galaxies at z ~ 0.1 and 0.2

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