The Arecibo L-Band Feed Array Zone of Avoidance Survey. I. Precursor Observations Through The Inner and Outer Galaxy

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The Astronomical Journal, 139:2130–2147, 2010 June doi:10.

1088/0004-6256/139/6/2130
C 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

THE ARECIBO L-BAND FEED ARRAY ZONE OF AVOIDANCE SURVEY. I. PRECURSOR


OBSERVATIONS THROUGH THE INNER AND OUTER GALAXY
1 2 3 4 5 1 1 6
P. A. Henning , C. M. Springob , R. F. Minchin , E. Momjian , B. Catinella , T. McIntyre , F. Day , E. Muller ,
7 8 9 10 11
B. Koribalski , J. L. Rosenberg , S. Schneider , L. Staveley-Smith , and W. van Driel
2
1 Institute for Astrophysics, University of New Mexico, MSC07 4220, 800 Yale Blvd., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
Anglo-Australian Observatory, P.O. Box 296, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
4
3 National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center-Arecibo Observatory, HC3 Box 53995, Arecibo, PR 00612, USA
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
5 Max-Planck-Institut fur¨ Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, D-85741 Garching, Germany
6
Department of Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602, Japan
7 8
Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, P.O. Box 76, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia
9
Department of Physics and Astronomy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22030, USA
Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
10 School of Physics, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
11GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Universite´ Paris Diderot, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon,
France Received 2009 August 19; accepted 2010 January 21; published 2010 April 13

ABSTRACT
The Arecibo L-band Feed Array (ALFA) is being used to conduct a low-Galactic latitude survey, to map the
distribution of galaxies and large-scale structures behind the Milky Way through detection of galaxies’ neutral
hydrogen (H i) 21 cm emission. This Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) survey finds new H i galaxies which lie hidden
behind the Milky Way, and also provides redshifts for partially obscured galaxies known at other wavelengths.
Before the commencement of the full survey, two low-latitude precursor regions were observed, totaling 138
2
deg , with 72 H i galaxies detected. Detections through the inner Galaxy generally have no cataloged
counterparts in any other waveband, due to the heavy extinction and stellar confusion. Detections through the
outer Galaxy are more likely to have Two Micron All Sky Survey counterparts. We present the results of these
precursor observations, including a catalog of the detected galaxies, with their H i parameters. The survey
sensitivity is well described by a flux- and linewidth-dependent signal-to-noise ratio of 6.5. ALFA ZOA
galaxies, which also have H i measurements in the literature, show good agreement between our measurements
and previous work. The inner Galaxy precursor region was chosen to overlap the H i Parkes Zone of Avoidance
Survey, so ALFA performance could be quickly assessed. The outer Galaxy precursor region lies north of the
Parkes sky. Low-latitude large-scale structure in this region is revealed, including an overdensity of galaxies near
◦ −1
= 183 and between 5000–6000 km s in the ZOA. The full ALFA ZOA survey will be conducted in two
phases: a shallow survey using the observing techniques of the precursor observations, and also a deep phase
with much longer integration time, with thousands of galaxies predicted for the final catalog.
Key words: galaxies: distances and redshifts – galaxies: fundamental parameters – large-scale structure of
universe – surveys

and stellar confusion. However, galaxies that contain H i can


1. INTRODUCTION be found everywhere, including regions of thickest
obscuration, and worst IR confusion. In the northern
The obscuration due to dust and the high stellar density in our ◦
Galaxy varies from place to place within the Milky Way. Overall, hemisphere, the ZOA within ±5 of the Galactic plane has
it blocks ∼20% of the extragalactic universe at optical been searched at 21 cm, but only at the high noise level of 40
−1 −1
wavelengths and a smaller fraction of the sky at infrared mJy beam (with velocity resolution of 4 km s ), sensitive
wavelengths. This “Zone of Avoidance” (ZOA) was recognized only to nearby, massive objects (The Dwingeloo Obscured
even before the nature of the spiral nebulae was understood. This Galaxies Survey: 43 galaxies uncovered; Henning et al. 1998;
Rivers 2000). More recently, the H i Parkes Zone of
sky coverage limitation does not pose a problem for the study of ◦ ◦
galaxies themselves, as there is no reason to believe that the Avoidance Survey (HIZOA) covered decl. = −90 to +25 at 6
−1 −1
population of obscured galaxies should differ from those in mJy beam rms (with velocity resolution of 27 km s ), and
optically unobscured regions. Yet, an accurate knowledge of the detected about 1000 galaxies (Donley et al. 2005; Henning et
mass distribution within our neighborhood is essential if we are al. 2000, 2005; Kraan-Korteweg et al. 2005).
to understand the dynamical evolution of the Local Group from With the installation of the Arecibo L-band Feed Array
kinematic studies (e.g., Peebles et al. 2001). In addition, the (ALFA), we now have the opportunity to map local large-scale
discovery of previously unknown nearby galaxies will further structure in H i in the ZOA, within the declination limits of the
12
efforts to understand the local velocity field (see Kraan-Korteweg 305 m Arecibo Radio Telescope. Because many observational
1986 and Karachentsev et al. 2002). Mapping more distant targets for pulsar and Galactic H i observers are found at low
hidden galaxies allows us to explore the connectivity of large- Galactic latitude, we have begun a program of “commensal”
scale structure across the Galactic plane.
12 The Arecibo Observatory is part of the National Astronomy and
The ZOA has been successfully narrowed by deep searches in Ionosphere Center, which is operated by Cornell University under a
the optical and infrared, but both fail in regions of high extinction cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

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No. 6, 2010 THE ARECIBO L-BAND FEED ARRAY ZONE OF AVOIDANCE SURVEY. I. 2131

100 80 60 40 20 240 220 200 180 160


GALACTIC LONGITUDE GALACTIC LONGITUDE
−1
Figure 1. Top panels: sky distribution of cataloged LEDA optical/IR objects with velocities within 12,000 km s (small dots) and Parkes HIZOA galaxies
(crosses; Donley et al. 2005; Shafi 2008; Henning et al. 2005; Kraan-Korteweg et al. 2005, and catalog in preparation) surrounding the ALFA ZOA precursor
regions (roughly rectangular boxes). ALFA ZOA galaxies are shown as large dots. The star shows the location of the Crab Nebula. The dashed lines indicate the
declination limits for the Arecibo telescope. Bottom panels: Galactic extinction levels of AB = 1 and 3 mag (Schlegel et al. 1998) are shown as contours.

(meaning simultaneous) observations with Galactic H i and


pul-sar observers. Commensal observing, using multiple
backends simultaneously, makes efficient use of observing
hours, which is particularly important during the highly
oversubscribed Galactic time.
The project being described here, “ALFA ZOA,” is the
combination of two different commensal observing projects:
◦ ◦ ◦
(1) a map of the Arecibo sky at = 30 –75 , |b| < 10 (inner
Galaxy region) with a backend designed for detecting
extragalactic H i that will be used in conjunction with a backend
for observing Galactic H i and one for observing ∼ 1.4 GHz
radio continuum emission and (2) a deeper map of the Arecibo

sky at |b| < 5 beginning in the inner Galaxy region with a
backend designed to detect extragalactic H i in conjunction with a
spectrometer used for observing pulsars. The extragalactic data
from this second survey will also be used to search for Galactic
radio recombination lines. Both of these projects will reach
farther north than HIZOA, and will provide higher spatial and Figure 2. Integrated H i flux density vs. linewidth at 50% peak level for the
ALFA ZOA galaxies. The filled circles represent ALFA ZOA galaxies with
velocity resolution than the HIZOA survey. The second survey counterparts in the literature as described in Section 5.2, the open circles
will also provide higher sensitivity than HIZOA. represent ALFA ZOA galaxies with no known counterparts. The dashed line
ALFA ZOA is complementary to the three other extragalactic shows a flux-density- and linewidth-dependent reliability limit of S/N = 6.5,
blind surveys that are currently underway at Arecibo: (1) the as for ALFALFA (Saintonge 2007). This a posteriori S/N selection threshold
for ALFA ZOA is consistent with the reliability limits of both the ALFALFA
Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey (ALFALFA; e.g., Giovanelli
and AGES (Cortese et al. 2008) surveys.
et al. 2005) which is a large area but relatively shallow survey,
(2) the Arecibo Galaxy Environments Survey (AGES; e.g., describe the data reduction, galaxy recognition and
Auld et al. 2006) a medium-deep survey, and (3) the ALFA parameteri-zation, and selection function. Section 5 contains
Ultra Deep Survey (AUDS; Freudling et al. 2005) a very deep an overview of the detected galaxies, their H i parameters, and
survey with small sky coverage. any counterparts at other wavelengths, and discusses the inner
The full ALFA ZOA survey has begun, and will take and outer Galaxy results. Section 6 describes the outlook for
several years to complete. We present a description of the the full ALFA ZOA survey.
ALFA ZOA survey and the results of ZOA precursor
observations that were taken commensally with two smaller
2 2. THE ALFA ZONE OF AVOIDANCE SURVEY
Galactic H i projects. The first project covered 38 deg near =
◦ 2 ◦ ALFA ZOA is one of several extragalactic H i surveys being
40 , and the other covered 100 deg near = 192 .
We offer a description of the ALFA ZOA survey, and then undertaken with ALFA. The emphasis of this project is to trace
present the observational results from the precursor observa- the local large-scale structure in optically obscured regions of the
tions. sky, and to better understand the local velocity field. This project
In Section 2, we motivate the ALFA ZOA survey. In Section will also make important contributions to studies of the H i
3, we describe the early precursor observations. In Section 4, we properties of galaxies in different environments, as there are

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