The WSRT HALOGAS Survey

TL;DR

The HALOGAS Survey provides the deepest systematic study of cold gas accretion in nearby spiral galaxies, revealing detailed properties of neutral hydrogen and its relation to galaxy evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive survey with high-resolution HI data, enabling detailed analysis of low surface brightness gas and galaxy dynamics, advancing understanding of gas accretion processes.

Findings

Detection of neutral hydrogen down to 10^19 cm^-2

Insights into the connection between star formation and gaseous media

Catalogue of cold gas clouds and streams in nearby spirals

Abstract

We present an overview of the HALOGAS (Hydrogen Accretion in LOcal GAlaxieS) Survey, which is the deepest systematic investigation of cold gas accretion in nearby spiral galaxies to date. Using the deep HI data that form the core of the survey, we are able to detect neutral hydrogen down to a typical column density limit of about 10$^{19}$ cm$^{-2}$ and thereby characterize the low surface brightness extra-planar and anomalous-velocity neutral gas in nearby galaxies with excellent spatial and velocity resolution. Through comparison with sophisticated kinematic modeling, our 3D HALOGAS data also allow us to investigate the disk structure and dynamics in unprecedented detail for a sample of this size. Key scientific results from HALOGAS include new insight into the connection between the star formation properties of galaxies and their extended gaseous media, while the developing HALOGAS catalogue of cold gas clouds and streams provides important insight into the accretion history of nearby spirals. We conclude by motivating some of the unresolved questions to be addressed using forthcoming 3D surveys with the modern generation of radio telescopes.