# HI observations of nearby galaxies I. The first list of the Karachentsev catalog

## 1 Introduction

The only way to study the smallest galaxies is to search for them in our cosmic neighborhood. The first systematic catalog of nearby galaxies was prepared by Kraan-Korteweg & Tammann (1979) who collected all known galaxies with corrected radial velocities v<sub>0</sub> $``$500 km s<sup>-1</sup>, a total of 179 objects (hereafter called the KKT sample). Since that time the number of known galaxies within the Local Volume (i.e. within a distance of 10 Mpc) increased to 303 objects (Karachentsev et al. 1999). For the past decade the initial KKT sample has been increased almost two times in number due to the mass redshift surveys of galaxies from the known catalogues, revealing new nearby galaxies in the Milky Way ”Zone of Avoidance”, as well as special searches for dwarf galaxies in nearby groups. The increasing numbers of galaxies in the Local Volume is mainly due to many new dwarf galaxies. This fact demonstrates how incomplete our knowledge about the galaxy population of even the Local Volume is.

A couple of years ago Karachentseva & Karachentsev (1998; hereafter KK98) initiated an all-sky search for candidates for new nearby dwarf galaxies using the second Palomar Sky Survey and the ESO/SERC plates of the southern sky. The results of the first two segments of the survey have been published, they cover large areas around the known galaxy groups in the Local Volume (KK98) and the area of the Local Void (Karachentseva et al. 1999). In a next step to derive distances we will measure radial velocities. Later on we will aim for more exact photometric distances. In this paper we present the first follow-up observations, the HI search for the galaxies in KK98. The HI search for dwarf irregular galaxies seems quite efficient as these galaxies are HI rich in general and with adequate velocity resolution, say 5 km s<sup>-1</sup>, all the HI of a given galaxy will be within a few velocity channels. The characteristic signature of a dwarf galaxy profile, a nearly gaussian structure, is different from radio interference and easily will lead to a good signal-to-noise ratio.

## 2 Observations

Observations were performed with three different radio telescopes for different declination ranges. The 100-m radiotelescope at Effelsberg was used for declinations greater than $`31\mathrm{°}`$, the Nançay radio telescope was selected for galaxies in the declination range $`38\mathrm{°}31\mathrm{°}`$, and the compact array of the Australia Telescope was used for galaxies south of $`38\mathrm{°}`$.

### 2.1 Effelsberg observations

The radio telescope at Effelsberg has been used in the total power mode (ON – OFF) combining a reference field 5 minutes earlier in R.A. with the on-source position. A dual channel HEMT receiver had a system noise of 30K.

The 1024 channel autocorrelator was split into 4 bands (bandwidth 6.25 MHz) of 256 channels each shifted in frequency by 5 MHz with respect to their neighbor in order to cover a velocity range from -470 to 3970 km s<sup>-1</sup> overlapping 1.5 MHz between channels. The resulting channel separation was 5.1 km s<sup>-1</sup> yielding a resolution of 6.2 km s<sup>-1</sup> (10.2 km s<sup>-1</sup> after Hanning smoothing). The HI profiles observed with the 100-m radiotelescope are presented in Fig. 1 in order of increasing R.A. as in Table 1. The half power beam widths (HPBW) of the Effelsberg telescope at this wavelength is 9$`\stackrel{}{.}`$3.

### 2.2 Nançay observations

For 15 galaxies in the declination range $`38\mathrm{°}31\mathrm{°}`$ the Nançay radio telescope was used with the same velocity resolution and coverage. Major differences to the description given for the Effelsberg observations were a different system noise (45K), a different antenna beam ($`3\stackrel{}{.}6\times 22\mathrm{}`$ in R.A. and Dec. for this declination range), and shorter integration phases with a cycle of 2 minutes for the ON and the OFF positions. Nine galaxies have been detected (Fig. 2).

### 2.3 Compact Array of the Australia Telescope

40 of the 57 galaxies south of declination $`38\mathrm{°}`$ have been observed with the Compact Array of the Australia Telescope. For this HI search we have chosen the 750A antenna array configuration in order to yield an antenna beam comparable to the optical size of the smallest galaxies (i.e. $``$ 1$`\mathrm{}`$). The frequency setup and correlator configuration was such that we obtained a velocity coverage from -450 to +2900 km s<sup>-1</sup> and a channel separation of 6.6 km s<sup>-1</sup> (i.e. a resolution of 7.9 km s<sup>-1</sup>). Each galaxy was observed for 10 min every few hours. With five to six observations per target position we achieved a regular coverage of the uv plane for these ’snapshot mode’ observations. The resulting integrated HI profiles are given in Fig. 3 (for a more detailed discussion of these data see Huchtmeier et al. in preparation). We may miss some flux with the interferometer (missing flux) as the observed HI emission extends over more than 2$`\mathrm{}`$ per channel for over 60% of the galaxies. Galaxies from the kk98 sample not observed are: kk 11, kk 63, kk179, kk 184, kk 189, kk 190, kk 197, kk 203, kk 211, kk 213, kk 214, kk 217, kk 221, kk 222, kk 235, kk 244, kk 248.

## 3 The data

Our search list was an early version of the list of KK98 containing a few additional galaxies which did not make it into the final version because of their morphology and/or size (i.e. they were too small). Particularly, we took into account the results of HI searches for nearby dwarf galaxies made by Kraan-Korteweg et al. (1994), Huchtmeier et al. (1995), Burton et al. (1996), Huchtmeier & van Driel (1997), Huchtmeier et al.(1997) and Cote et al.(1997). The optical data of our galaxies are given in Table 1. The kk-number (or other identification if there is no kk-number) is given in column 1, R.A. and Dec. (1950) follow in columns 2 and 3. The optical diameters $`a`$ and $`b`$ in the de Vaucouleurs ($`D_{25}`$) system follow in columns 4 and 5, the morphological type in column 6 where we use the following coding:

Im - irregular blue object with bright knot(s),

Ir - irregular without knots or with amorphous condensations, the colour is neutral or bluish,

Sm - disturbed spiral or irregular with signs of spiral structure,

Sph - spheroidal, with very low brightness gradient or without any, the color is neutral or redish.

The optical surface brightness (SB) has been coded (see KK98): high (H), low (L), very low (VL), and extremely low (EL) in column 7. The total blue magnitude B<sub>t</sub> and its reference follow in columns 8 and 9. ’NED’ - data are from the NASA/ Extragalactic Database, ’IK’ - visual estimates from POSS (typical error is about 0.4 mag) by I. Karachentsev, ’6m’ - accurate photometric data from the 6-m telescope CCD-frames obtained by Karachentsev and coworkers (unpublished); ’UH’ - photometric data from U. Hopp (Calar Alto) unpublished. The Galactic extinction follows in column 10. Other names (identifications) are listed in column 11.

Results of the HI observations are summarized in Table 2. The kk-number is given in column 1, the HI-flux \[Jy km s<sup>-1</sup>\] follows in column 2, the maximum emission and/or the r.m.s. noise \[mJy\] in column 3, the heliocentric radial velocity plus error in column 4, the line widths at the 50%, the 25%, and the 20% level of the peak emission in column 5. Distances (column 6) have been derived with different methods, there are photometric distances in some cases, in other cases the group membership yields a distance. If no other distance estimate is available, we assumed a Hubble constant of 75 km s<sup>-1</sup>Mpc<sup>-1</sup> to derive a ’kinematic’ distance. The absolute magnitude is given in column 7, the integrated HI mass (column 8) was calculated as (e.g. Roberts 1969)

$$(M_{HI}/M_{\mathrm{}})=2.355\times 10^5\times D^2\times S_v𝑑v$$

where $`D`$ is the distance of the galaxy in Mpc and $`S_v𝑑v`$ is the integrated HI flux in Jy km s<sup>-1</sup>. The relative HI content $`M_{HI}/L_B`$ follows in column 9. Finally, column 10 contains comments relative to the telescope used for the observation: unless otherwise noted observations have been performed with the 100-m radiotelescope at Effelsberg, N - marks the Nançay radio telescope, ATCA - the Australia Telescope Compact Array at Culgoora, NSW. In a number of cases emission at negative radial velocities has been observed (kk20, kk236, kk237; only kk 236 has been plotted as an example). The Dwingeloo HI survey (Hartmann & Burton 1997) has been consulted: in all cases of negative radial velocities extended HI emission was found suggesting that we observed high velocity clouds in our Galaxy.

## 4 Discussion

A great majority (73%) of our galaxies are of type Im (26) and Ir (162), about 20% are of type Sph/Ir (12) and Sph (39), while the rest of 8% is a collection of different types from spiral to Im/Sm and BCD. The detection rate of our sample galaxies depends on the morphological type. 75% of the spirals (type S0 to Sm/Im and BCD) were detected; the detection rate for types Im and Ir is very similar close to 60%, whereas the detection rate for types Sph/Ir and Sph is considerable lower at 33 and 23%, respectively. The detection rate depends on the optical surface brightness (SB) class, too. From high SB to low, very low, and extremely low SB the detection rate decreases from 70% to 58%, 49%, and 43%, respectively. This trend reflects the type dependence and the fact that we deal with fainter galaxies as we descend from high SB to very low SB, the median absolute magnitudes for the detected galaxies change from -15.43 (H) to -13.92 (VL) for our brightness classes.

A number of the galaxies within the present sample are associated with nearby groups of galaxies (e.g. Tully 1988) according to their position, radial velocity and relative resolution:

NGC 672 group: kk 13, kk 14, kk 15;

NGC 784 group: kk 16, kk 17;

Maffei group: kk 19, kk 21, kk 22, kk 23, kk35 kk 44;

Orion group: kk 49;

M 81 group: kk 81, kk 83, kk 85, kk 89, kk 89, kk 91;

Leo group: kk 94;

CVn cloud: kk 109, UGC 7298, kk 137, kk 141, kk 144, kk 148, kk 149, kk 151, kk 154, kk 158, kk 160, kk 191, kk 206, kk 220, kk 230;

Centaurus group: kk 170, kk 179, kk 182, kk 190, kk 191, kk 195, kk 197, kk 200, kk 211, kk 217, kk 218;

NGC 6946 group: kk 250, kk 251, kk 252;

Virgo cluster: kk 111, kk 127, kk 128, kk 140, NGC 4523, IC3517, kk 164, kk 168, kk 169, kk 172, kk 173, U 8091.

There are a few cases of high $`M_{HI}/L_B`$ values in Table 2. Four of the five galaxies with $`M_{HI}/L_B5`$ are actually found to be confused by emission from nearby galaxies (see footnotes to Table 2).

The present sample of galaxies as presented in Tables 1 and 2 will be discussed now in some detail with the help of global parameters. The distribution of radial velocity (v<sub>0</sub>, corrected for the rotation of our galaxy) is given in Fig. 4. Apart from a few background objects most of the galaxies belong to the local supercluster, about 25% are within the Local Volume. From this situation it is clear that the great majority of the galaxies in the present sample are dwarfish in nature. This will be shown more convincingly below when we compare several other global parameters of these objects.

Next we will look at the optical linear diameter $`A_0`$ (in kpc). The histogram in Fig. 5 presents the number of galaxies binned in intervals of 0.5 kpc width. The distribution of the optical linear diameters of our galaxies extends from 0.2 kpc to 26 kpc, yet the great majority is smaller than 8 kpc in diameter (in the de Vaucouleurs $`D_{25}`$ system). Galaxies in the Local Volume (indicated by shaded areas) are even smaller with a median value of $`1.4\pm 0.2`$ kpc.

Now we will use the correlation of two global parameters to compare the present sample of galaxies with the previously known galaxies in the Local Volume. In Fig. 6 the total mass of neutral hydrogen $`M_{HI}`$ of the galaxies is plotted versus their linear extent $`A_0`$ for this sample of galaxies. The full line is the regression line for the KKT sample (Huchtmeier & Richter 1988). This regression line seems to be an excellent fit for the present sample, too. The average HI mass of the galaxies in the Local Volume is 4.6 10<sup>7</sup> M.

The HI masses in Fig. 6 cover a range from 10<sup>6</sup> to 10<sup>10</sup> solar masses. The HI luminosity function for galaxies has been studied with galaxies of 10<sup>7</sup> and more solar masses in HI so far. With the data of the new dwarf galaxies within the Local Volume we will be able in the end to discuss the HI luminosity function starting from 10<sup>6</sup> solar masses.

The galaxies in our sample have small line widths on the average. In Fig. 7 we present the distribution of observed line widths in the upper panel and the (for inclination) corrected line widths in the lower panel. The optical axial ratio has been used here to derive the inclination. Galaxies within the Local Volume are indicated by the shaded areas. The peak of the line width distribution of the galaxies within the Local Volume is 39 km s<sup>-1</sup> for the uncorrected and 47 km s<sup>-1</sup> for the corrected line widths.

The three global parameters we have considered so far point altogether toward the dwarfish character of the Local Volume objects in our sample: the average linear diameter of $`1.4\pm 0.2`$ kpc (Fig.5), the mean total HI mass of 4.6 10<sup>7</sup> M and the small line width of less than 50 km s<sup>-1</sup>.

Two more global parameters are shown in Fig. 8, pseudo HI surface density $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{HI}`$ and the relative HI content $`M_{HI}/M_T`$. The pseudo HI surface density is obtained by dividing the total HI mass $`M_{HI}`$ of the galaxy by the disk area of the galaxy as defined by its optical diameter $`A_0`$. This quantity is given in units of solar mass per square parsec as well as in the usual HI column density $`N_{HI}`$ in atoms cm<sup>-2</sup>. This quantity is plotted versus the relative HI content $`M_{HI}/M_T`$. Our galaxies fill the usual range in HI surface density as well as in relative HI content as observed for normal galaxies (e.g. HR). The present sample of galaxies is relatively rich in HI. Some of the scatter in the diagram is due to uncertainties in observed quantities, especially the inclination which is used to correct the line width which itself enters the total mass calculation by the square. The optical diameters are uncertain for galaxies at low galactic latitudes due to the high foreground extinction, e.g. Cas 2, ESO 137-G27, BK12, ESO 558-11. If we exclude the confused galaxies and those with heavy galactic extinction all entries in Fig. 8 with $`\mathrm{\Sigma }_{HI}100`$ M pc<sup>-2</sup> are gone. Low values of the HI surface density are not only due to the uncertainties of observational data, the gas content of dwarf galaxies is very sensitive to outside influences (tidal interactions) due to their shallow gravitational potential.

Finally we plot the HI surface brightness versus the optical surface brightness (Fig. 9). The surface brightness class (Table 1, column 7) has been coded from 4 to 1 from high SB to extremely low SB in steps of 1. The different errors of the mean values of each class essentially depend on the different population size of each SB class. However, there is a definite trend of the HI surface density to grow with increasing optical SB by a factor of 2 to 4 (e.g. van der Hulst et al. 1993, de Blok 1997).

## 5 Conclusion

In this paper we presented an HI search for 257 candidates for nearby dwarf galaxies. A detection rate of 60% on the average is quite high keeping in mind the limited velocity band and the fact that single-dish telescopes are literally ’blind’ for weak emission in the velocity range of the local HI emission (i.e. within -140 to +20 km s<sup>-1</sup>) and for 20% of HI-poor (spheroidal and Sph/Ir) objects in the sample. Most of the detected galaxies are located within the local supercluster, and about 25% are members of the Local Volume. The dwarfs within the Local Volume have a mean linear diameter of $`1.4\pm 0.2`$ kpc, a mean observed linewidths of 39 km s<sup>-1</sup>, and a mean total HI mass of 4.6 10<sup>7</sup> M. The smallest galaxies have HI masses of just over 10<sup>6</sup> solar masses. Once this full-sky survey will be finished we will be able to discuss the luminosity function of the Local Volume including these tiny dwarf galaxies. This investigation is especially needed as recent determinations of the galaxy luminosity function exhibit an increase for low mass objects. The exact value of this increase will be important for deriving the mass density in the local universe.

###### Acknowledgements.

The Australia Telescope is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. The Nançay Radio Astronomy Observatory is the Unité Scientifique de Nançay of the Observatoire de Paris, associated as Unité de Service et de Recherche (USR) No. B704 to the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). The Observatory also gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Conseil Régional of the Région Centre in France. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This work has been partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under project no. 436 RUS 113/470/0 and Eh 154/1-1.