Relationships between HI Gas Mass, Stellar Mass and Star Formation Rate of HICAT+WISE (HI-WISE) Galaxies

TL;DR

This study explores the relationships between HI gas mass, stellar mass, and star formation rate in a large galaxy sample, revealing power-law dependencies and an upper limit on HI gas fraction, with implications for galaxy evolution models.

Contribution

It provides new WISE matched photometry for HICAT sources and analyzes HI-stellar mass and star formation efficiency relationships in spiral galaxies.

Findings

HI mass increases with stellar mass with a power-law index of 0.35

An upper limit on HI gas fraction consistent with halo spin models

Star formation efficiency remains constant across stellar masses

Abstract

We have measured the relationships between HI mass, stellar mass and star formation rate using the HI Parkes All Sky-Survey Catalogue (HICAT) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Of the 3,513 HICAT sources, we find 3.4 micron counterparts for 2,896 sources (80%) and provide new WISE matched aperture photometry for these galaxies. For our principal sample of spiral galaxies with W1 $\le$ 10 mag and z $\le$ 0.01, we identify HI detections for 93% of the sample. We measure lower HI-stellar mass relationships that HI selected samples that do not include spiral galaxies with little HI gas. Our observations of the spiral sample show that HI mass increases with stellar mass with a power-law index 0.35; however, this value is dependent on T-type, which affects both the median and the dispersion of HI mass. We also observe an upper limit on the HI gas fraction, which is consistent with a halo spin parameter model. We measure the star formation efficiency of spiral galaxies to be constant 10$^{-9.57}$ yr$^{-1}$ $\pm$ 0.4 dex for 2.5 orders of magnitude in stellar mass, despite the higher stellar mass spiral showing evidence of quenched star formation.