On the Baryonic Contents of Low Mass Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper discusses the significance of ionized gas in low mass galaxies and its impact on the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, highlighting that ionized gas is often overlooked in observations but is theoretically expected to be present.

Contribution

It emphasizes the importance of ionized gas in dwarf galaxies and its potential effect on the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, combining observational and theoretical insights.

Findings

Ionized gas is expected to be present in dwarf galaxies.

Observations often miss the ionized gas component.

The presence of ionized gas influences the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation.

Abstract

The baryonic Tully-Fisher relation is an important observational constraint on cosmological and galactic models. However, it is critical to keep in mind that in observations only stars, molecular, and atomic gas are counted, while the contribution of the ionized gas is almost universally missed. The ionized gas is, however, expected to be present in the gaseous disks of dwarf galaxies simply because they are exposed to the cosmic ionizing background and to the stellar radiation that manages to escape from the central regions of the galactic disks into their outer layers. Such an expectation is, indeed, born out both by cosmological numerical simulations and by simple analytical models.