Speaker
Description
Galaxies undergo diverse evolutionary processes depending on their environment, often leaving clear imprints in their neutral hydrogen (HI) content and morphology. In cluster environments, HI tails are common and serve as indicators of gas removal through tidal and/or hydrodynamical interactions. Yet, the dominant mechanisms responsible for these features remain debated. The Fornax cluster, a nearby low-mass system, offers an ideal setting to explore these questions under conditions typical for most galaxies in the Universe.
Observed through they eye of the SKA precursor MeerKAT — with an exceptional sensitivity down to $6 \times 10^5\, \rm{M_{\odot}}$ and ${\sim}1$ kpc resolution at 20 Mpc — Fornax has been imaged in unprecedented detail, revealing widespread HI removal and gas tails in its galaxies.
I will present a classification of the different stages of gas stripping in 35 HI-detected galaxies within the cluster’s virial radius. Our preliminary results reveal a rich diversity of gas-removal stages, including galaxies undergoing tidal stripping, early and ongoing Intra-Cluster Medium (ICM) interactions, starvation, and potential re-accretion. In several cases, a combination of tidal and hydrodynamical processes appears responsible for the observed HI structures.
This work demonstrates the power of spatially resolved HI studies in constraining the physical mechanisms driving galaxy transformation. With the upcoming SKA, such analyses will scale to thousands of galaxies across environments and redshifts, enabling a statistical understanding of gas stripping and its role in galaxy evolution.
| Topics | Galaxy Evolution & AGN |
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