HI Kinematics, Mass Distribution, and Star Formation Threshold in NGC 6822, using the SKA pathfinder KAT-7

TL;DR

This study uses KAT-7 HI observations to analyze NGC 6822's kinematics, mass distribution, and star formation thresholds, revealing dark matter dominance, a well-fitting pseudo-isothermal halo, and insights into star formation triggers.

Contribution

First detailed rotation curve of NGC 6822 extending to 5.8 kpc using KAT-7, and analysis of star formation thresholds with implications for irregular galaxies.

Findings

NGC 6822 is dark matter dominated at all radii.

Pseudo-isothermal DM halo fits the rotation curve well.

Cloud-growth criterion explains star formation better than Toomre-Q.

Abstract

We present high sensitivity HI observations of NGC 6822, obtained with the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7). We study the kinematics, the mass distribution, and the star formation thresholds. The KAT-7 short baselines and low system temperature make it sensitive to large-scale, low surface brightness emission. The observations detected $\sim$ 23$\%$ more flux than previous ATCA observations. We fit a tilted ring model to the HI velocity field to derive the rotation curve (RC). The KAT-7 observations allow the measurement of the rotation curve of NGC 6822 out to 5.8 kpc, $\sim$ 1 kpc further than existing measurements. NGC 6822 is seen to be dark matter dominated at all radii. The observationally motivated pseudo-isothermal dark matter (DM) halo model reproduces well the observed RC while the Navarro Frank-White DM model gives a poor fit to the data. We find the best fit mass to light ratio (M/L) of 0.12 $\pm$ 0.01 which is consistent with the literature. The Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) gives a poor fit to our data. We derive the star formation threshold in NGC 6822 using the HI and H$\alpha$ data. The critical gas densities were calculated for gravitational instabilities using the Toomre-Q criterion and the cloud-growth criterion. We found that in regions of star formation, the cloud-growth criterion explains star formation better than the Toomre-Q criterion. This shows that the local shear rate could be a key player in cloud formation for irregular galaxies such as NGC 6822.