Cross-Comparison of Galaxies Detected in the CSST Spectroscopic Survey and the SKA HI Survey

TL;DR

This paper develops a forward-modeling framework to forecast galaxy detections in the CSST spectroscopic survey and SKA HI survey, enabling cross-comparison and analysis of galaxy properties and their correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive simulation pipeline combining semi-analytic models, mock lightcones, and source-finding to compare galaxy samples from CSST and SKA surveys.

Findings

Cross-matched galaxy samples reveal correlations with halo, HI, and stellar masses.

Stacking analysis probes HI content in low-HI-mass galaxies.

Optical-HI cross-correlation power spectrum and galaxy bias are measured.

Abstract

We present a forward-modeling framework to forecast the galaxies detected in the Chinese Space Station Survey Telescope (CSST) spectroscopic survey and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) HI survey. Starting from the L-Galaxies 2020 semi-analytic model run on the Millennium-II N-body simulation (MS-II), the cold gas in galaxies is partitioned into atomic and molecular components self-consistently within the model. We further model the emission-lines (H $\alpha$, H $\beta$, O III) relevant for the slitless spectrograph of the CSST in a post-processing step. We construct mock lightcones using the Mock Map Facility (MoMaF) approach, simulating the neutral hydrogen (HI) data cubes representing a 2000 hour SKA-Mid spectral line observation from redshifts 0.25--0.5, and employ the Source Finding Application 2(SOFIA-2) source-finding package to generate an HI galaxy catalog. In parallel, we apply the CSST selection function and noise model to obtain a realistic catalog of emission-line galaxies; the emission-line signal is proportional to the star formation rate. These products allow us to cross compare the galaxy samples and assess the synergy between CSST and SKA. We study the correlations of the HI and the emission-line signal with the halo mass, HI mass, and the stellar mass, and the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR). We also perform stacking analysis of the HI signal from the CSST-selected sample, which probes the HI content in galaxies with low HI mass. Finally, we derive the optical-HI cross-correlation power spectrum of the galaxies, and measure the bias of these galaxies. These results can provide useful insight on the cold gas and stellar content of the galaxies.