Breakthrough Listen

Abstract:

We present the observed H I size–mass relation of 204 galaxies from the MIGHTEE Survey Early Science data. The high sensitivity of MeerKAT allows us to detect galaxies spanning more than 4 orders of magnitude in H I mass, ranging from dwarf galaxies to massive spirals, and including all morphological types. This is the first time the relation has been explored on a blind homogeneous data set that extends over a previously unexplored redshift range of 0 < z < 0.084, i.e. a period of around one billion years in cosmic time. The sample follows the same tight logarithmic relation derived from previous work, between the diameter (⁠DHI⁠) and the mass (⁠MHI⁠) of H I discs. We measure a slope of 0.501 ± 0.008, an intercept of −3.252+0.073−0.074⁠, and an observed scatter of 0.057 dex. For the first time, we quantify the intrinsic scatter of 0.054 ± 0.003 dex (⁠∼10 per cent⁠), which provides a constraint for cosmological simulations of galaxy formation and evolution. We derive the relation as a function of galaxy type and find that their intrinsic scatters and slopes are consistent within the errors. We also calculate the DHI−MHI relation for two redshift bins and do not find any evidence for evolution with redshift. These results suggest that over a period of one billion years in look-back time, galaxy discs have not undergone significant evolution in their gas distribution and mean surface mass density, indicating a lack of dependence on both morphological type and redshift.