A consistent model for both the HI and stellar mass functions of galaxies

TL;DR

This paper presents a semi-analytic galaxy formation model that simultaneously fits the HI and stellar mass functions, galaxy colours, and other observations across different redshifts by adjusting star formation parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a modified model with reduced gas surface density thresholds and star formation efficiency to better match multiple galaxy observations.

Findings

Good fit to z=0 observations of HI and stellar mass functions

Reduced gas surface density threshold improves low HI mass galaxy modeling

Simplified model without surface density threshold also fits data but affects other relations

Abstract

Using the L-Galaxies semi-analytic model we simultaneously fit the HI mass function, stellar mass function and galaxy colours. We find good fits to all three observations at z = 0 and to the stellar mass function and galaxy colours at z = 2. Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques we adjust the L-Galaxies parameters to best fit the constraining data. In order to fit the HI mass function we must greatly reduce the gas surface density threshold for star formation, thus lowering the number of low HI mass galaxies. A simultaneous reduction in the star formation efficiency prevents the over production of stellar content. A simplified model in which the surface density threshold is eliminated altogether also provides a good fit to the data. Unfortunately, these changes weaken the fit to the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation and raise the star-formation rate density at recent times, suggesting that a change to the model is required to prevent accumulation of gas onto dwarf galaxies in the local universe.