Theoretical Models of the Atomic Hydrogen Content in Dark Matter Halos

Atomic hydrogen (H I) gas, mostly residing in dark matter halos after cosmic reionization, is the fuel for star formation. Its relation with properties of host halo is the key to understand the cosmic H I distribution. In this work, we propose a flexible, empirical model of H I-halo relation. In this model, while the H I mass depends primarily on the mass of host halo, there is also secondary dependence on other halo properties. We apply our model to the observation data of the Arecibo Fast Legacy ALFA Survey (ALFALFA), and find it can successfully fit to the cosmic H I abundance ($Ω_{\rm HI}$), average H I-halo mass relation $\langle M_{\rm HI}|M_{\rm h}\rangle$, and the H I clustering. The bestfit of the ALFALFA data rejects with high confidence level the model with no secondary halo dependence of H I mass and the model with secondary dependence on halo spin parameter ($λ$), and shows strong dependence on halo formation time ($a_{1/2}$) and halo concentration ($c_{\rm vir}$). In attempt to explain these findings from the perspective of hydrodynamical simulations, the IllustrisTNG simulation confirms the dependence of H I mass on secondary halo parameters. However, the IllustrisTNG results show strong dependence on $λ$ and weak dependence on $c_{\rm vir}$ and $a_{1/2}$, and also predict a much larger value of H I clustering on large scales than observations. This discrepancy between the simulation and observation calls for improvements in understanding the H I-halo relation from both theoretical and observational sides.

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