A MeerKAT study of a neutral hydrogen rich grouping of galaxies with megaparsec-scale filamentary-like structure

TL;DR

This study uses MeerKAT observations to analyze a large, HI-rich galaxy overdensity with filamentary structure, revealing interactions and environmental effects on galaxy evolution, and predicting the frequency of such discoveries.

Contribution

First detailed MeerKAT analysis of a large HI overdensity with filamentary structure, combining multi-wavelength data and simulations to understand galaxy interactions and large-scale environment.

Findings

Identification of a megaparsec-scale HI filamentary structure.

Detection of numerous interacting galaxies within the group.

Simulation-based prediction of discovery rates for similar structures.

Abstract

Environmental effects within cosmological overdensities, such as galaxy groups and clusters, have been shown to impact galaxies and their cold gas reservoirs and thereby provide constraints on galaxy evolution models. Galaxy groups foster frequent galaxy-galaxy interactions, making them rich environments in which to study galaxy transformation. In this work, we study a serendipitously discovered large overdensity of HI galaxies at z~0.04. The galaxies appear to lie in a filamentary-like structure of megaparsec scale. MeerKAT's angular resolution and field of view allow us to spatially resolve the HI galaxies while simultaneously probing large-scale structure. The HI and sub-arcsec Dark Energy Survey (DES) imaging reveal a large number of interacting galaxies in this collective group. MeerKAT data enables us to derive HI masses and investigate interacting galaxies. We use DES and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data to quantify the star formation rates, stellar masses, and stellar morphologies of member galaxies and compare these with field scaling relations. To place this discovery and the environmental effects in context, we use the SIMBA simulation to investigate the prevalence of qualitatively similar HI overdensities and their large-scale morphological properties. This enables a prediction of how frequently such structures might be serendipitously discovered with MeerKAT and SKA-Mid HI observations in comparable observation time. The combination of spatially resolved HI data and optical imaging reveals a group rich in interactions, suggesting environmental processes are already shaping galaxy properties within the structure. More of these serendipitous discoveries are expected and, alongside ongoing targeted programmes, these will provide a rich sample to study galaxy transformation and enable a MeerKAT HI perspective on large-scale structure, including filaments.