The HI gas fraction scaling relation of the Green Pea galaxies

Abstract

Green Pea galaxies are compact galaxies with high star formation rates. However, limited samples of Green Pea galaxies have HI 21 cm measurements. Whether the HI gas fraction f_{HI} = M_{HI}/M_{*} of Green Pea galaxies follows the existing scaling relations between the f_{HI} and NUV-r color or linear combinations of color and other physical quantities needs checking. Using archival data of HI 21cm observations, we investigate the scaling relation of the NUV-r color with the M_{HI}/M_{*} of 38 Green Pea galaxies, including 17 detections and 21 non-detections. The HI to stellar mass ratios (f_{HI}) of Green Pea galaxies deviate from the polynomial form, where a higher HI gas fraction is predicted given the current NUV-r color, even with the emission lines removed. The blue sources (NUV-r<1) from the comparison sample (ALFALFA-SDSS) follow a similar trend. The HI gas fraction scaling relations with linear combination forms of -0.34(NUV-r) - 0.64 log(mu_{*,z}) + 5.94 and -0.77 log mu_{*,i} + 0.26 log SFR/M_{*}+8.53, better predict the HI gas fraction of the Green Pea galaxies. In order to obtain accurate linear combined forms, higher-resolution photometry from space-based telescopes is needed.