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At least 199 records · Page 11

ExoReL{sup R}: A Bayesian Inverse Retrieval Framework for Exoplanetary Reflected Light Spectra

The high-contrast imaging technique is meant to provide insight into those planets orbiting several astronomical units from their host star. Space missions such as Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope, Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission, and Large Ultra-Violet/Optical/InfraRed Surveyor will measure reflected light spectra of cold gaseous and rocky planets. To interpret these observations, we introduce ExoReL{sup R} (Exoplanetary Reflected Light Retrieval), a novel Bayesian retrieval framework to retrieve cloud properties and atmospheric structures from exoplanetary reflected light spectra. As a unique feature, it assumes a vertically nonuniform volume mixing ratio (VMR) profile of water and ammonia, and uses it to construct cloud densities. In this way, clouds and molecular mixture ratios are consistent. We apply ExoReL{sup R} on three test cases: two exoplanets (υ And e and 47 Uma b) and Jupiter. We show that we are able to retrieve the concentration of methane in the atmosphere, and estimate the position of clouds when the signal-to-noise ratio of the spectrum is higher than 15, in line with previous works. Moreover, we described the ability of our model to give a chemical identity to clouds, and we discussed whether or not we can observe this difference in the planetary reflection spectrum. Finally, we demonstrate how it could be possible to retrieve molecular concentrations (water and ammonia in this work) below the clouds by linking the nonuniform VMR profile to the cloud presence. This will help to constrain the concentration of water and ammonia unseen in direct measurements.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

A BEAM SCREEN TO PREPARE THE RHIC VACUUM CHAMBER FOR EIC HADRON BEAMS: CONCEPTUAL DESIGN AND REQUIREMENTS

The Electron Ion Collider (EIC) Hadron Storage Ring (HSR) will use the existing Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider storage rings, including the superconducting magnet arcs [1]. The vacuum chambers in the superconducting magnets and the cold mass interconnects were not designed for EIC beams and so must be updated to reduce resistive-wall heating and to suppress e-clouds. To do so without compromising the EIC luminosity goal, a stainless steel beam screen with colaminated copper and a thin layer of amorphous carbon will be installed. This paper describes the main requirements that our solution for the hadron ring vacuum chamber needs to satisfy, including impedance, aperture limitations, vacuum, thermal and structural stability, mechanical design, installation and operation. The conceptual design of the beam screen currently under development is introduced.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Interpreting the Diurnal Cycle of Clouds and Precipitation in the ARM GoAmazon Observations: Shallow to Deep Convection Transition

The Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon) 2014/5 field campaign data are used to study the diurnal cycle of clouds and precipitation. Through a careful classification of days with shallow cumulus, congestus and deep convection, we investigate the major differences among locally generated convection regimes and the most important environmental factors governing the shallow-to-deep convection transition. On shallow cumulus days, a greater sensible heat flux drives deeper boundary layer growth, which entrains drier free-tropospheric air and lowers the relative humidity, thus leading to a significantly higher cloud base than those on days with deeper convection. Congestus and deep convection regimes exhibit distinct cloud top height distributions with noticeable differences in the vertical wind shear in the mid-troposphere, suggesting an important role of wind shear in limiting the vertical extent of convection. On deep convection days, with preexisting nocturnal convection or cold-pools from external disturbances, the timing of peak surface precipitation (12:00–13:00 LST) tends to be in-phase with the diurnal variation in surface fluxes. However, it takes longer for local deep convection to develop without these disturbances. A plume model with thermodynamic and dynamical constraints is developed to explore the relative importance of various convection-controlling factors. Initial cloud-base vertical velocity and buoyancy are important in helping parcels ascend to the level of free convection (LFC). After parcels reach the LFC, entrainment of environmental air and lower free troposphere humidity become crucial in determining cloud top. Entrainment rate differentiates among convection regimes, which may be tied to the cloud size distribution at cloud base.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Classifying thermodynamic cloud phase using machine learning models

Vertically resolved thermodynamic cloud-phase classifications are essential for studies of atmospheric cloud and precipitation processes. The Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Thermodynamic Cloud Phase (THERMOCLDPHASE) value-added product (VAP) uses a multi-sensor approach to classify the thermodynamic cloud phase by combining lidar backscatter and depolarization, radar reflectivity, Doppler velocity, spectral width, microwave-radiometer-derived liquid water path, and radiosonde temperature measurements. The measured pixels are classified as ice, snow, mixed phase, liquid (cloud water), drizzle, rain, and liq_driz (liquid+drizzle). We use this product as the ground truth to train three machine learning (ML) models to predict the thermodynamic cloud phase from multi-sensor remote sensing measurements taken at the ARM North Slope of Alaska (NSA) observatory: a random forest (RF), a multi-layer perceptron (MLP), and a convolutional neural network (CNN) with a U-Net architecture. Evaluations against the outputs of the THERMOCLDPHASE VAP with 1 year of data show that the CNN outperforms the other two models, achieving the highest test accuracy, F1 score, and mean intersection over union (IOU). Analysis of ML confidence scores shows that ice, rain, and snow have higher confidence scores, followed by liquid, while mixed, drizzle, and liq_driz have lower scores. Feature importance analysis reveals that the mean Doppler velocity and vertically resolved temperature are the most influential data streams for ML thermodynamic cloud-phase predictions. Lidar measurements exhibit lower feature importance due to rapid signal attenuation caused by the frequent presence of persistent low-level clouds at the NSA site. The ML models' generalization capacity is further evaluated by applying them at another Arctic ARM site in Norway using data taken during the ARM Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) field campaign. The models demonstrated similar performance to that observed at the NSA site. Finally, we evaluate the ML models' response to simulated instrument outages and signal degradation and show that a CNN U-Net model trained with input channel dropouts performs better when input fields are missing.

ARM Aerial Facility↗

Mesoscale Organization in Cumulus-Coupled Stratocumulus

Marine cloud systems cover a substantial portion of the world’s oceans. Most of these clouds form relatively close to the ocean surface, typically within one to two kilometers, a region referred to by meteorologists as the marine boundary layer. They are composed predominantly of liquid water, although ice particles can occur in mid- and high-latitude marine clouds during winter. In satellite imagery, these clouds appear bright against the darker ocean surface below, reflecting a large fraction of incoming sunlight back into space that would otherwise warm the ocean. Because marine boundary layer clouds cover such an extensive area of the ocean, they exert a significant influence on Earth’s overall transfer of solar energy absorbed by the surface and thermal energy emitted to space, a balance known as the planetary radiation budget. Marine boundary layer clouds are typically thin, and their formation and dissipation depend on a delicate balance between processes acting at the ocean surface below and the warm, dry air above. They are notoriously difficult to simulate accurately in weather forecast models, which often produce too few marine low clouds in midlatitudes and clouds in tropical regions that are excessively bright, meaning they reflect too much solar radiation. The marine boundary layer is frequently characterized by widespread overcast cloud cover that often transitions from a continuous, single-layer deck to more broken cloud fields toward the tropics. These transitions typically proceed through an intermediate stage in which shallow, broken clouds form beneath the overlying stratiform cloud deck. Once broken clouds develop below the overcast, they frequently self-organize into cloud clusters known as marine boundary layer convective complexes (MBLCCs), although the mechanisms governing the formation and organization of MBLCCs remain poorly understood. Accurately representing these transitions in long-range weather forecast models is essential because they influence the properties of air masses advected over the continental United States and Europe, and they become increasingly important for forecasts on seasonal and longer timescales. We employed two complementary approaches to investigate the processes controlling MBLCCs and their impact on marine cloud cover. Long-term observations from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Eastern North Atlantic (ENA) Observatory provided a unique dataset that allowed us to characterize fundamental properties of MBLCCs, including their typical size and frequency of occurrence. These observations were combined with high-resolution numerical simulations performed on supercomputers to examine the evolution of MBLCCs during cold-air outbreaks over the ENA region.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

SIDM Concerto: Compilation and Data Release of Self-interacting Dark Matter Zoom-in Simulations

We present SIDM Concerto: 14 cosmological zoom-in simulations in cold dark matter (CDM) and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) models based on the Symphony and Milky Way-est suites. SIDM Concerto includes one Large Magellanic Cloud– (LMC-) mass system (host mass ∼10 11 M ⊙ ), two Milky Way (MW) analogs (∼10 12 M ⊙ ), two group-mass hosts (∼10 13 M ⊙ ), and one low-mass cluster (∼10 14 M ⊙ ). Each host contains ≈2 × 10 7 particles and is run in CDM and one or more strong, velocity-dependent SIDM models. Our analysis of SIDM (sub)halo populations over seven subhalo mass decades reveals that (1) the fraction of core-collapsed isolated halos and subhalos peaks at a maximum circular velocity corresponding to the transition of the SIDM cross section from a v −4 to v 0 scaling; (2) SIDM subhalo mass functions are suppressed by ≈50% relative to CDM in LMC, MW, and group-mass hosts but are consistent with CDM in the low-mass cluster host; (3) subhalos’ inner density profile slopes, which are more diverse in SIDM than in CDM, are sensitive to both the amplitude and shape of the SIDM cross section. Our simulations provide a benchmark for testing SIDM predictions with astrophysical observations of field and satellite galaxies, strong lensing systems, and stellar streams. Data products are publicly available at doi:10.5281/zenodo.14933624.

dark matter↗

Detecting Fractional Chern Insulators in Optical Lattices Through Quantized Displacement

The realization of interacting topological states of matter such as fractional Chern insulators (FCIs) in cold atom systems has recently come within experimental reach due to the engineering of optical lattices with synthetic gauge fields providing the required topological band structures. However, detecting their occurrence might prove difficult since transport measurements akin to those in solid state systems are challenging to perform in cold atom setups and alternatives have to be found. Here, we show that for a ν = 1/2 FCI state realized in the lowest band of a Harper-Hofstadter model of interacting bosons confined by a harmonic trapping potential, the fractionally quantized Hall conductivity σ xy can be accurately determined by the displacement of the atomic cloud under the action of a constant force which provides a suitable experimentally measurable signal for detecting the topological nature of the state. Using matrix-product state algorithms, we show that, in both cylinder and square geometries, the movement of the particle cloud in time under the application of a constant force field on top of the confining potential is proportional to σ xy for an extended range of field strengths.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Ice-nucleating particles in precipitation samples from the Texas Panhandle

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) influence the formation of ice crystals in clouds and many types of precipitation. This study reports unique properties of INPs collected from 42 precipitation samples in the Texas Panhandle region from June 2018 to July 2019. We used a cold stage instrument called the West Texas Cryogenic Refrigerator Applied to Freezing Test system to estimate INP concentrations per unit volume of air (nINP) through immersion freezing in our precipitation samples with our detection capability of >0.006 INP L -1 . A disdrometer was used for two purposes: (1) to characterize the ground-level precipitation type and (2) to measure the precipitation intensity as well as size of precipitating particles at the ground level during each precipitation event. While no clear seasonal variations of n INP values were apparent, the analysis of yearlong ground-level precipitation observation as well as INPs in the precipitation samples showed some INP variations, e.g., the highest and lowest n INP values at -25°C both in the summer for hail-involved severe thunderstorm samples (3.0 to 1130 INP L -1 ), followed by the second lowest at the same temperature from one of our snow samples collected during the winter (3.2 INP L -1 ). Furthermore, we conducted bacteria community analyses using a subset of our precipitation samples to examine the presence of known biological INPs. In parallel, we also performed metagenomics characterization of the bacterial microbiome in suspended ambient dust samples collected at commercial open-lot livestock facilities (cattle feedyards hereafter) in the Texas Panhandle (i.e., the northernmost counties of Texas, also known as “West Texas”) to ascertain whether local cattle feedyards can act as a source of bioaerosol particles and/or INPs found in the precipitation samples. Some key bacterial phyla present in cattle feedyard samples appeared in precipitation samples. However, no known ice nucleation active species were detected in our samples. Overall, our results showed that cumulative n INP in our precipitation samples below -20°C could be high in the samples collected while observing > 10 mm h -1 precipitation with notably large hydrometeor sizes and an implication of cattle feedyard bacteria inclusion.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Shedding light on U.S. small and midsize data centers: Exploring insights from the CBECS survey

As demand for digital services accelerates, the energy and environmental footprint of data centers faces increasing scrutiny. While hyperscale cloud facilities have driven efficiency gains, small and midsize U.S. data centers remain a critical yet underexamined segment with significant untapped potential for energy savings. This study leverages data from the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) to analyze trends in server stocks, computing customers, cooling system adoption and efficiency, and geospatial distribution from 2012 to 2018. Findings reveal a sharp decline in small and midsize data centers, from 1.764 million to 1.398 million, with server counts dropping from 5.177 million to 4.262 million—aligning with the broader shift toward cloud computing. More than 40 % of servers in small data centers and 55 % in midsize data centers are housed in office buildings, and over half of all servers are concentrated in climate zones 5A (cold), 3A (mixed-humid), and 4A (mixed-humid), with the highest densities in metropolitan hubs. While direct expansion units remain the dominant cooling system, a clear transition toward more energy-efficient solutions, particularly air economizers, is evident. By integrating server and cooling system distributions, we estimate Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) for U.S. data centers by size and year. Results show that midsize data centers are more energy-efficient but more water-intensive due to the widespread use of water-cooled chillers. These findings highlight the trade-offs in cooling system selection and provide a critical foundation for policies aimed at enhancing efficiency in an evolving data center landscape.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

A Lagrangian Study of the Transition from Shallow to Deep Convection Using ASR Observations and Les Simulations (Final Report)

With the support from this grant, we have made the following accomplishments. We have found that a formula for fractional entrainment rate, a key aspect for parameterization moist convection, that works for both shallow and deep convection, which provide a promising direction for unified treatment of entrainment for both shallow and deep convection. We also examined the formulation of vertical velocity and showed that the effect of non-hydrostatic pressure and entrainment on vertical velocity are not constants, as assumed in past studies, but can be computed using a simple model for the cloudy updrafts. These results also apply to both deep and shallow convection, which opens the door for a more physically based parameterization of the updraft vertical velocity. We have also conducted extensive analysis of the RACORO aircraft data and have published the results in Wei et al. (2020). We have made extensive effort scrutinizing the data in detail and examining the various hypotheses with the aid of the LES simulations. This was the first application of the modified Paluch diagram on modern aircraft data and the first comprehensive analysis of mixing in clouds using real data (instead of only LES output) in a very long time. These analyses enhanced the science return of the ASR aircraft measurements. This grant also supported a study of the collisions among cold pools and an effort to build parameterizations of moist convection using tools developed in control theory.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Linking Large-Scale Double-ITCZ Bias to Local-Scale Drizzling Bias in Climate Models

Tropical precipitation in climate models presents significant biases in both the large-scale pattern (i.e., double intertropical convergence zone bias) and local-scale characteristics (i.e., drizzling bias with too frequent drizzle/convection and reduced occurrences of no and heavy precipitation). By untangling the coupled system and analyzing the biases in precipitation, cloud, and radiation, this study shows that local-scale drizzling bias in atmospheric models can lead to large-scale double-ITCZ bias in coupled models by inducing convective-regime-dependent biases in precipitation and cloud radiative effects (CRE). The double-ITCZ bias consists of a hemispherically asymmetric component that arises from the asymmetric SST bias and a nearly symmetric component that exists in atmospheric models without the SST bias. By increasing light rain but reducing heavy rain, local-scale drizzling bias induces positive (negative) precipitation bias in the moderate (strong) convective regime, leading to the nearly symmetric wet bias in atmospheric models. By affecting the cloud profile, local-scale drizzling bias induces positive (negative) CRE bias in the stratocumulus (convective) regime in atmospheric models. Because the stratocumulus (convective) region is climatologically more pronounced in the southern (northern) tropics, the CRE bias is deemed to be hemispherically asymmetric and drives warm and wet (cold and dry) biases in the southern (northern) tropics when coupled to ocean. Our results suggest that correcting local-scale drizzling bias is critical for fixing large-scale double-ITCZ bias. Finally, the drizzling and double-ITCZ biases are not alleviated in models with mesoscale (0.25°–0.5°) or even storm-resolving (~3 km) resolution, implying that either large-eddy simulation or fundamental improvement in small-scale subgrid parameterizations is needed.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Investigating the Relative Roles of INPs and CCN in a Simulated Thunderstorm Using a New Immersion Freezing Algorithm

Microphysical processes in deep convective clouds are sensitive to the number concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nucleating particles (INPs), but the effects of INPs are less studied. Modeling studies investigating the effects of INPs and/or CCN on deep convection typically retain a volume‐dependent raindrop freezing relation. The resulting neglect of aerosol accumulation in raindrops via drop collisions has likely produced unrealistic storm responses to INPs in past studies. To address this deficiency, a new immersion freezing algorithm was developed and embedded in a bulk microphysics scheme that freezes both cloud drops and raindrops using the same immersion freezing INP (IF‐INP) activity spectrum based on measurements. Multiple idealized simulations of a single case of deep convection observed during the Clouds, Aerosols, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign were conducted, with microphysical differences produced by independently altering IF‐INP temperature dependencies and CCN number concentrations from their observed values. Surface precipitation in all simulations resulted almost exclusively from riming graupel that melted upon descending to the surface. Rainfall and cold pools were substantially and systematically weakened with increased CCN due to decreased graupel riming rates but were relatively insensitive to variations in the magnitude and slope of IF‐INP spectra due to compensating depletion of supercooled liquid water. These compensating processes were a consequence of the accumulation of IF‐INPs in raindrops, encouraging caution in studying IF‐INP effects upon thunderstorms using traditional volume‐dependent drop freezing relationships.

CCN↗

The phase and turbulent properties of Cattail

ABSTRACT A recent publication discovered one of the largest filamentary neutral hydrogen features dubbed Cattail from high-resolution Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope observations that might be a new galactic arm of the Milky Way. We evaluate the turbulent and phase properties of Cattail via the newly developed Velocity Decomposition Algorithm and Force Balancing Model. We discover that if there exists a phase transition, then Cattail is unlikely in the cold neutral media phase. We also show that the Cattail is two disjoint features in caustics space, suggesting that the Cattail has two different turbulent systems. We check the spectra of the individual system separated via VDA to confirm this argument. We do not exclude the existence of smaller scale cold media being embedded within this structure.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Ice processes in Antarctica: identification via multi-wavelength active and passive measurements and model evaluation (Final Report)

This project is based on new multi-frequency radar observations collected during the AWARE field campaign in 2016 at McMurdo Station by the ARM Mobile facility. Three scientific goals have been achieved. We have developed ice and mixed-phase cloud microphysics retrievals from multi-wavelength radar observations and ancillary observations, generally applicable at ARM sites. These technique generally better characterize the size of the ice crystals, their equivalent water content and the degree of riming better than using single wavelength techniques. We have characterized ice microphysical properties and ice processes via multi-frequency signatures. We have identified a unique mode in the McMurdo dataset appearing at quite cold temperature that we have attributed to riming processes. Triple frequency radar measurements unfortunately were available only for a short period but our work lays the foundation for building climatological and testing their replicability in models. Simultaneously case studies from the AWARE campaign have been exploited to evaluate and improve the NASA GISS ModelE3 climate model, including selection of case studies for combined goals of (i) running side-by-side using large-eddy simulation (LES) and ModelE3 in single-column model (SCM) mode and (ii) fingerprinting cloud processes in multi-wavelength radar observations. The different components of this work have contributed to 15 published papers with two currently under review.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Simulating the Effects of Surface Energy Partitioning on Convective Organization: Case Study and Observations in the US Southern Great Plains

Realistic cloud-resolving simulations were performed to study the effects of surface energy partitioning (surface sensible and latent heat fluxes) on the organization of isolated convection into larger mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) near the US Southern Great Plains. The role of cold pools in mediating surface-convection interactions was explored. Better organized MCSs tended to occur in the experiments with perturbed wetter soil (and more active vegetation), regardless of the effects of soil moisture on the diurnal timing of convective triggering. Wetter soil led to shallower boundary layers and more convective available potential energy than drier soil. The roles of cold pools on convection are lifecycle-stage dependent: A dry surface allows more numerous colliding cold pools, thereby aiding in convective triggering by reducing entrainment in the early stages, and providing gust-front uplift in later stages. However, horizontal propagation of the cold-pool density current can outrun the convective system, creating a slantwise updraft and thus weakening the gust front uplift in later stages. This effect calls into question previous cold pool parameterizations, in which the gust front uplift is mainly proportional to the negative buoyancy of cold air. Finally, both the model and observation show an enhancement of surface latent heat flux during the passage of a gust front at night, suggesting that a positive feedback between the surface and convection helps MCSs to persist into the nighttime.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Evaluating Diesel/Biofuel Blends Using Artificial Neural Networks and Linear/Nonlinear Equations

Abstract The use of biomass-derived additives in diesel fuel mixtures has the potential to increase the fuel’s efficiency, decrease the formation of particulate matter during its combustion, and retain the fuel’s behavior in cold weather. To this end, identifying compounds that enable these behaviors is paramount. The present work utilizes a series of linear and non-linear equations in series with artificial neural networks to predict the cetane number, yield sooting index, kinematic viscosity, cloud point, and lower heating value of multi-component blends. Property values of pure components are predicted using artificial neural networks trained with existing experimental data, and these predictions and their expected errors are propagated through linear and non-linear equations to obtain property predictions for multi-component blends. Individual component property prediction errors, defined by blind prediction median absolute error, are 4.91 units, 7.84 units, 0.06 cSt, 4.00 °C, and 0.55 MJ/kg for cetane number, yield sooting index, kinematic viscosity, cloud point, and lower heating value respectively. On average, property predictions for blends are shown to be accurate to within 6% of the blends’ experimental values. Further, a multitude of compounds expected to be produced from catalytically upgrading products of fast pyrolysis are evaluated with respect to their behavior in diesel fuel blends.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Symphony: Cosmological Zoom-in Simulation Suites over Four Decades of Host Halo Mass

Abstract We present Symphony, a compilation of 262 cosmological, cold-dark-matter-only zoom-in simulations spanning four decades of host halo mass, from 10 11 –10 15 M ⊙ . This compilation includes three existing simulation suites at the cluster and Milky Way–mass scales, and two new suites: 39 Large Magellanic Cloud-mass (10 11 M ⊙ ) and 49 strong-lens-analog (10 13 M ⊙ ) group-mass hosts. Across the entire host halo mass range, the highest-resolution regions in these simulations are resolved with a dark matter particle mass of ≈3 × 10 −7 times the host virial mass and a Plummer-equivalent gravitational softening length of ≈9 × 10 −4 times the host virial radius, on average. We measure correlations between subhalo abundance and host concentration, formation time, and maximum subhalo mass, all of which peak at the Milky Way host halo mass scale. Subhalo abundances are ≈50% higher in clusters than in lower-mass hosts at fixed sub-to-host halo mass ratios. Subhalo radial distributions are approximately self-similar as a function of host mass and are less concentrated than hosts’ underlying dark matter distributions. We compare our results to the semianalytic model Galacticus , which predicts subhalo mass functions with a higher normalization at the low-mass end and radial distributions that are slightly more concentrated than Symphony. We use UniverseMachine to model halo and subhalo star formation histories in Symphony, and we demonstrate that these predictions resolve the formation histories of the halos that host nearly all currently observable satellite galaxies in the universe. To promote open use of Symphony, data products are publicly available at http://web.stanford.edu/group/gfc/symphony .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The distribution of neutral hydrogen in the colour–magnitude plane of galaxies

ABSTRACT We present the conditional H i (neutral hydrogen) mass function (HIMF) conditioned on observed optical properties, Mr (r-band absolute magnitude), and Cur (u − r colour), for a sample of 7709 galaxies from Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (40 per cent data release – α.40) which overlaps with a common volume in SDSS DR7. Based on the conditional HIMF, we find that the luminous red, luminous blue, and faint blue populations dominate the total HIMF at the high-mass end, knee, and the low-mass end, respectively. We use the conditional HIMF to derive the underlying distribution function of ΩH i (H i density parameter), p(ΩH i), in the colour–magnitude plane of galaxies. The distribution, p(ΩH i), peaks in the blue cloud at $\mathit{ M_{{r}}}^{\text{max}}=-19.25, \mathit{ C_{{ur}}}^{\text{max}}=1.44$ but is skewed. It has a long tail towards faint blue galaxies, and luminous red galaxies. We argue that p(ΩH i) can be used to reveal the underlying relation between cold gas, stellar mass, and the star formation rate in an unbiased way, that is, the derived relation does not suffer from survey or sample selection.

Dutta, Saili (ORCID:0000000288585845)↗