The Arecibo Ultra-Deep Survey

TL;DR

The Arecibo Ultra Deep Survey (AUDS) is a highly sensitive HI survey detecting 247 galaxies up to redshift 0.16, providing insights into the HI mass function and cosmic HI density with no significant evolution observed.

Contribution

This paper presents the deepest blind HI survey to date with detailed measurements of the HI mass function and cosmic HI density up to redshift 0.16, using a novel maximum likelihood method.

Findings

Detected 247 galaxies in the survey.

Measured HI mass function parameters: alpha = -1.37, M* = 10^10.15 M_sun.

Found no significant evolution in HI density from redshift 0 to 0.16.

Abstract

The Arecibo Ultra Deep Survey (AUDS) is a blind HI survey aimed at detecting galaxies beyond the local Universe in the 21-cm emission line of neutral hydrogen (HI). The Arecibo $L$-band Feed Array (ALFA) was used to image an area of 1.35~deg$^2$ to a redshift depth of 0.16, using a total on-source integration time of over 700 hours. The long integration time and small observation area makes it one of the most sensitive HI surveys, with a noise level of $\sim 75$~$\mu$Jy per 21.4~kHz (equivalent to 4.5~km~s$^{-1}$ at redshift $z=0$). We detect 247 galaxies in the survey, more than doubling the number already detected in AUDS60. The mass range of detected galaxies is $\log(M_{\rm HI}~[h_{70}^{-2}{\rm M}_\odot]) = 6.32 - 10.76$. A modified maximum likelihood method is employed to construct an HI mass function (HIMF). The best fitting Schechter parameters are: low-mass slope $\alpha = -1.37 \pm 0.05$, characteristic mass $\log(M^*~[h_{70}^{-2}{\rm M}_\odot]) = 10.15 \pm 0.09$, and density $\Phi_* = (2.41 \pm 0.57) \times 10^{-3} h_{70}^3$~Mpc$^{-3}$~dex$^{-1}$. The sample was divided into low and high redshift bins to investigate the evolution of the HIMF. No change in low-mass slope $\alpha$ was measured, but an increased characteristic mass $M^*$, was noted in the higher-redshift sample. Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data to define relative galaxy number density, the dependence of the HIMF with environment was also investigated in the two AUDS regions. We find no significant variation in $\alpha$ or $M^*$. In the surveyed region, we measured a cosmic HI density $\Omega_{\rm HI} = (3.55 \pm 0.30) \times 10^{-4} h_{70}^{-1}$. There appears to be no evolutionary trend in $\Omega_{\rm HI}$ above $2\sigma$ significance between redshifts of 0 and 0.16.