Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2609.24925

Galaxy evolution in the post-merger regime. V - Atomic gas evolution traced by ALFALFA stacks

Sara L. Ellison·Manasvee Saraf·Leonardo Ferreira·Amelie Saintonge·Dirk Scholte·Jing Wang·Qifeng Huang
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

(Abridged) In this work, we investigate the role of atomic hydrogen (HI) gas in the galaxy merger lifecycle. In order to both identify galaxies in mergers, as well as to predict their time since coalescence, we present an extension of the MUlti Model Merger Identifier (MUMMI) machine vision pipeline applied to Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) imaging. The new MUMMI-DECaLS catalog contains 19,951 post-mergers, of which 14,638 have robust time post-merger (T_PM) predictions. The MUMMI-DECaLS post-merger galaxy catalog is cross-matched with the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey. For the 752 post-mergers thus identified, as well as a matched control sample, we produce median spectral stacks of 21~cm emission, finding that the post-mergers are HI deficient by 0.11 dex compared with non-interacting galaxies. When divided into T_PM bins we find that the HI deficit (or excess) is strongly dependent on both the time since coalescence and whether the galaxies are star-forming or quenched. Star-forming post-mergers in particular show a strong HI evolution with T_PM, exhibiting a 0.1 dex MHI excess immediately after coalescence, a 0.3 dex MHI deficit at 0.16 < T_PM < 0.96 Gyr and normal gas masses by ~ 1.5 Gyr after coalescence. On the other hand, despite being matched in star formation rate, stellar mass and redshift, quenched post-mergers are HI deficient at both short and long post-coalescence times. Nonetheless, a significant mass of HI (>10^9 M_sun) remains even in these late-time quenched post-mergers, representing a resource which could potentially re-fuel star formation in the future. Our results demonstrate the complexity of quantifying the HI behaviour in mergers, which depends not only on timing, but also star-forming status, which can complicate comparisons between different studies and samples.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.GA

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Sara L. Ellison, Manasvee Saraf, Leonardo Ferreira, Amelie Saintonge, Dirk Scholte, Jing Wang, Qifeng Huang. 2026-09-21. Galaxy evolution in the post-merger regime. V - Atomic gas evolution traced by ALFALFA stacks. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24925

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Small hosts, big appetites: unveiling rapid and early low-mass black hole growth in cosmological zoom-in simulations of dwarf galaxies

Dwarf galaxies are ideal laboratories to probe the interplay between galaxy formation and the growth of black holes (BHs) in the early Universe. Mounting observational evidence reveals the presence of BHs in low-mass galaxies across cosmic time, with $\textit{JWST}$ uncovering a likely population of $\textit{overmassive}$ BHs at $2 \lesssim z \lesssim 11$. Simulations struggle to reproduce this high-redshift regime, motivating revisions to models of BH accretion and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). To address this, we present high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations of a dwarf galaxy based on FABLE physics, introducing novel sink-based BH accretion models and relaxing the fiducial assumption of strong supernova feedback. BHs accrete more efficiently in the sink-based runs compared to the `traditional' Bondi-based counterparts, with AGN feedback leading to early, rapid quenching maintained by fast, hot and metal-enriched outflows. These outflows pollute the outer circumgalactic medium, yielding flat metallicity gradients down to $z=0$. We further assess the performance of two widely used virial estimators and find significant departures from the true dynamical mass, especially during the high-redshift dwarf assembly. Since our galaxy is dark-matter-dominated at all times and radii, BH growth, tied to the baryon cycle, shows no clear correlation with global dynamical properties. Efficient AGN feedback is produced by overmassive BHs relative to extrapolated local $M_\bullet - M_\star$ relations, raising the possibility that dormant, overmassive BHs in local quenched dwarfs and those probed by $\textit{JWST}$ may reflect a common mode of early and rapid BH growth in low-mass galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

RUBIES: The Evolution of the Ionization Parameter from 0 < z < 9

The dimensionless ionization parameter, U=q/c, where q is the ratio of the local ionizing photon flux to the local hydrogen density, is a key metric to parameterize nebular conditions. Prior to JWST, the rest-frame optical emission lines and their ratios which trace the ionization parameter (e.g., O32=[OIII]/[OII]) were inaccessible at high redshifts. Here we quantify, for the first time, the evolution of the ionization parameter in galaxies across the last 13 billion years of cosmic time by comparing JWST/NIRSpec PRISM and G395M spectroscopy of 434 galaxies at 3<z<9 from the RUBIES survey with z<3 samples from SDSS, LEGA-C, and KBSS. We leverage a large suite of photoionization models to infer U from [OIII] and [OII]. We find that U increases with redshift and specific star formation rate (sSFR), and decreases with stellar mass. Crucially, and in contrast to previous linear best-fit calibrations, our inference results in a systematic uncertainty in logU of ~0.3 dex at zero measurement uncertainty due to the wide range of models that predict the same O32 ratio without informative priors. We compare to SPHINX20 and LUMEN simulations and find that the simulated galaxies exhibit higher O32 ratios at fixed redshift and stellar mass compared to RUBIES observations. Finally, we combine the predictive power of observed and inferred quantities with multivariate relations to estimate U from redshift, stellar mass, and sSFR for use where O32 is not available. We find that U increases at fixed stellar mass and sSFR by a factor of ~4 from z=2 to z=6, demonstrating that the redshift evolution encapsulates physics beyond that traced by stellar mass and sSFR alone. Finally, we show that a toy model with the first order assumption that HII region volume is proportional to galaxy volume can explain the excess redshift dependence of logU as being consistent with observed evolution in galaxy sizes.

astro-ph.GA↗
arXiv2026

An extreme ram-pressure stripping event in a protocluster at redshift 4.3

In the nearby Universe, the environment plays a crucial role in suppressing star formation in dense regions. In particular, ram-pressure stripping (RPS) is a major mechanism for removing gas from galaxies in clusters, occurring when galaxies travel through a dense hot atmosphere and leave trailing gaseous wakes. By depleting the cold gas reservoir, RPS can drive outside-in quenching and is therefore thought to be an important route for transforming cluster galaxies. At earlier times, however, the hot atmosphere in protoclusters is expected to be immature, so environmental effects are commonly assumed to be dominated by gravitational interactions. Here we report ALMA and JWST observations of SPT2349$-$56-C26 (hereafter C26), a massive galaxy experiencing an extreme RPS event in the SPT2349$-$56 protocluster at $z\,{=}\,4.3$. More than half of the [CII]-traced cold gas lies outside its stellar body, with the emission peak offset by 6 kpc. These observations show that RPS can remove most of the cold gas from massive galaxies in dense protocluster cores as early as $z\,{=}\,4.3$, providing a direct hydrodynamic pathway for environmental quenching at $z\,{>}\,4$.

astro-ph.GA↗