MIGHTEE-HI: The HI mass-stellar mass relation over the last billion years

TL;DR

This study models the HI mass-stellar mass relation over the last billion years, revealing a non-linear transition point where the relation flattens, indicating gas depletion impacts star formation in massive galaxies.

Contribution

It introduces a Bayesian method to model the HI-stellar mass relation without binning, identifying a transition mass and supporting the presence of a turnover in the relation.

Findings

The relation shows a flattening beyond a stellar mass of about 10^9.15 solar masses.

A non-linear model with a turnover fits the data better than a linear one.

The turnover persists across different galaxy populations, indicating a fundamental feature of galaxy evolution.

Abstract

We study the $M_{\rm HI}-M_{\star}$ relation over the last billion years using the MIGHTEE-HI sample. We first model the upper envelope of the $M_{\rm HI}-M_{\star}$ relation with a Bayesian technique applied to a total number of 249 HI-selected galaxies, without binning the datasets, while taking account of the intrinsic scatter. We fit the envelope with both linear and non-linear models, and find that the non-linear model is preferred over the linear one with a measured transition stellar mass of $\log_{10}(M_\star$/$M_{\odot})$ = $9.15\pm0.87$, beyond which the slope flattens. This finding supports the view that the lack of HI gas is ultimately responsible for the decreasing star formation rate observed in the massive main-sequence galaxies. For spirals alone, which are biased towards the massive galaxies in our sample, the slope beyond the transition mass is shallower than for the full sample, indicative of distinct gas processes ongoing for the spirals/high-mass galaxies from other types with lower stellar masses. We then create mock catalogues for the MIGHTEE-HI detections and non-detections with two main galaxy populations of late- and early-type galaxies to measure the underlying $M_{\rm HI}-M_{\star}$ relation. We find that the turnover in this relation persists whether considering the two galaxy populations as a whole or separately. We note that an underlying linear relation could mimic this turnover in the observed scaling relation, but a model with a turnover is strongly preferred. Measurements on the logarithmic average of HI masses against the stellar mass are provided as a benchmark for future studies.