Observation of HⅠaround three Satellite Galaxies of M31 with FAST:AndromedaⅡ,NGC 205,and NGC 185

With the exceptional sensitivity of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope,we conducted observations of the neutral hydrogen(HⅠ)in the circumgalactic medium of Andromeda’s(M31)satellite galaxies,specifically AndromedaⅡ,NGC 205,and NGC 185.Initially,three drift scans were executed for these satellites,with a detection limit of 4×10^(18)cm^(-2)(approximately 1.88×10^(3)M_Θof HⅠmass),followed by a more in-depth scan of a specific region.We discovered a C-shaped HⅠarc structure sharing a position and line-of-sight velocity similar to a stellar ring structure around AndromedaⅡ,hinting at a potential connection with AndromedaⅡ.In the context of NGC 205,we identified two mass concentrations in the northeast direction,which could be indicative of tidal streams resulting from the interaction between this galaxy and M31.These new lumps discovered could be very helpful in solving the missing interstellar medium problem for NGC 205.Observations regarding NGC 185are consistent with previous studies,and we did not detect any additional HⅠmaterial around this galaxy.These observational results enhance our understanding of the evolution of these satellite galaxies and provide insight into their historical interactions with the galaxy M31.

HiFAST:An HI Data Calibration and Imaging Pipeline for FAST.Ⅱ.Flux Density Calibration

Accurate flux density calibration is essential for precise analysis and interpretation of observations across different observation modes and instruments.In this research,we first introduce the flux calibration model that incorporated in Hi FAST pipeline,and designed for processing HⅠ21 cm spectra.Furthermore,we investigate different calibration techniques and assess the dependence of the gain parameter on the time and environmental factors.A comparison is carried out in various observation modes(e.g.,tracking and scanning modes)to determine the flux density gain(G),revealing insignificant discrepancies in G among different methods.Long-term monitoring data shows a linear correlation between G and atmospheric temperature.After subtracting the G-Temperature dependence,the dispersion of G is reduced to<3%over a one-year timescale.The stability of the receiver response of Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)is considered sufficient to facilitate HⅠobservations that can accommodate a moderate error in flux calibration(e.g.,>~5%)when utilizing a constant G for calibration purposes.Our study will serve as a useful addition to the results provided by Jiang et al.Detailed measurement of G for the 19 beams of FAST,covering the frequency range 1000-1500 MHz,can be found on the Hi FAST homepage:https://hifast.readthedocs.io/fluxgain.

Neutral Hydrogen Content of Dwarf Galaxies in Different Environments

Environments play an important role in galaxy formation and evolution,particularly in regulating the content of neutral gas.However,current HI surveys have limitations in their depth,which prevents them from adequately studying low HI content galaxies in high-density regions.In this study,we address this issue by employing the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope with extensive integration times to complement the relatively shallow Arecibo Legacy Fast Arecibo L-band Feed Array HI survey.This approach allows us to explore the gas content of dwarf galaxies across various environments.We observe a positive relationship between HI mass and stellar mass in dwarf galaxies,with a well-defined upper boundary for HI mass that holds true in both observations and simulations.Furthermore,we find a decrease in the H I-to-stellar mass ratio(M_(HI)/M_*)as the density of the environment increases,irrespective of whether it is determined by the proximity to the nearest group or the projected number density.Comparing our observations to simulations,we note a steeper slope in the relationship,indicating a gradual gas-stripping process in the observational data.Additionally,we find that the scaling relation between the M_(HI)/M_*and optical properties can be improved by incorporating galaxy environments.

Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation and Statistics in the Spectral Observations of FAST

In radio astronomy,radio frequency interference(RFI)becomes more and more serious for radio observational facilities.The RFI always influences the search and study of the interesting astronomical objects.Mitigating the RFI becomes an essential procedure in any survey data processing.The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)is an extremely sensitive radio telescope.It is necessary to find out an effective and precise RFI mitigation method for FAST data processing.In this work,we introduce a method to mitigate the RFI in FAST spectral observation and make a statistic for the RFI using~300 h FAST data.The details are as follows.First,according to the characteristics of FAST spectra,we propose to use the Asymmetrically Reweighted Penalized Least Squares algorithm for baseline fitting.Our test results show that it has a good performance.Second,we flag the RFI with four strategies,which are to flag extremely strong RFI,flag long-lasting RFI,flag polarized RFI,and flag beam-combined RFI,respectively.The test results show that all the RFI above a preset threshold could be flagged.Third,we make a statistic for the probabilities of polarized XX and YY RFI in FAST observations.The statistical results could tell us which frequencies are relatively quiescent.With such statistical data,we are able to avoid using such frequencies in our spectral observations.Finally,based on the~300 h FAST data,we obtained an RFI table,which is the most complete database currently for FAST.

The FAST all sky HI survey(FASHI):The first release of catalog

The FAST All Sky HI survey(FASHI)was designed to cover the entire sky observable by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST),spanning approximately 22000 square degrees of declination between-14°and+66°,and in the frequency range of 1050-1450 MHz,with the expectation of eventually detecting more than 100000 HI sources.Between August 2020 and June 2023,FASHI had covered more than 7600 square degrees,which is approximately 35%of the total sky observable by FAST.It has a median detection sensitivity of around 0.76 m Jy beam-1and a spectral line velocity resolution of~6.4 km s-1at a frequency of~1.4 GHz.As of now,a total of 41741 extragalactic HI sources have been detected in the frequency range 1305.5-1419.5 MHz,corresponding to a redshift limit of z■0.09.By cross-matching FASHI sources with the Siena Galaxy Atlas(SGA)and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS)catalogs,we found that 16972(40.7%)sources have spectroscopic redshifts and 10975(26.3%)sources have only photometric redshifts.Most of the remaining 13794(33.0%)HI sources are located in the direction of the Galactic plane,making their optical counterparts difficult to identify due to high extinction or high contamination of Galactic stellar sources.Based on current survey results,the FASHI survey is an unprecedented blind extragalactic H I survey.It has higher spectral and spatial resolution and broader coverage than the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey(ALFALFA).When completed,FASHI will provide the largest extragalactic HI catalog and an objective view of HI content and large-scale structure in the local universe.

HiFAST:An HIdata calibration and imaging pipeline for FAST

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)has the largest aperture and a 19-beam L-band receiver,making it powerful for investigating the neutral hydrogen atomic gas(HI)in the universe.We present HiFAST(https://hifast.readthedocs.io),a dedicated,modular,and self-contained calibration and imaging pipeline for processing the H?data of FAST.The pipeline consists of frequency-dependent noise diode calibration,baseline fitting,standing wave removal using an FFT-based method,flux density calibration,stray radiation correction,and gridding to produce data cubes.These modules can be combined as needed to process the data from most FAST observation modes:tracking,drift scanning,On-The-Fly mapping,and most of their variants.With HiFAST,the root-mean-square(RMS)noises of the calibrated spectra from all 19 beams were only slightly(~5%)higher than the theoretical expectation.The results for the extended source M33 and the point sources are consistent with the results from Arecibo.The moment maps(0,1 and 2)of M33 agree well with the results from the Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey(AGES)with a fractional difference of less than 10%.For a common sample of 221 sources with signal-to-noise ratio S/N>10 from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA(ALFALFA)survey,the mean value of fractional difference in the integrated flux density,Sint,between the two datasets is approximately 0.005%,with a dispersion of 15.4%.Further checks on the integrated flux density of 23 sources with seven observations indicate that the variance in the flux density of the source with luminous objects(Sint>2.5 Jy km s-1)is less than 5%.Our tests suggest that the FAST telescope,with the efficient,precise,and user-friendly pipeline HiFAST,will yield numerous significant scientific findings in the investigation of the H?in the universe.