New HI scaling relations to probe the HI content of galaxies via global HI-deficiency maps

TL;DR

This paper develops new multi-wavelength scaling relations linking neutral hydrogen content to stellar properties of nearby galaxies, revealing environmental effects and enabling predictions for future HI surveys.

Contribution

The paper introduces novel HI scaling relations that identify anomalous HI content and map its distribution, enhancing understanding of environmental impacts on galaxy gas content.

Findings

Galaxies in dense environments are generally HI-deficient.

Scaling relations effectively predict HI content in large galaxy samples.

HI distribution correlates with large-scale structure, showing clusters as HI-deficient regions.

Abstract

We present new multi-wavelength scaling relations between the neutral hydrogen content (HI) and the stellar properties of nearby galaxies selected from the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS). We use these new scaling relations to investigate the environmental dependency of the HI content of galaxies. We find that galaxies in high density environments tend to have on average less HI than galaxies with the same stellar mass in the low density environment. Our new HI scaling relations allow us to identify individual galaxies, as well as group/cluster environments, that have an `anomalous' HI content. We map the global distribution of HI-deficient and HI-excess galaxies on the sky and compare it to the large scale structure of galaxies. We find galaxy clusters to be HI-deficient, and we identify that the regions surrounding clusters tend to be HI-excess. Finally, we demonstrate the potential of using HI scaling relations to predict future HI surveys based on an optical redshift survey. We apply our scaling relations to 16709 galaxies in the 6dF Galaxy Survey (6dFGS) that lie in the HIPASS volume and compare our predictions to the measurements. We find that scaling relations are good method to estimate the outcome of HI surveys.