J/A+A/712/A227 ALMA CO-CAVITY void galaxies physical properties (Espada+, 2026)
ALMA CO-CAVITY. I. Resolved molecular gas in void galaxies.
Espada D., De Daniloff S. B., Duarte Puertas S., Argudo-Fernandez M.,
Lisenfeld U., Verley S., Perez I., Rodriguez M. I., Ruiz-Lara T.,
Garcia-Benito R., Sanchez-Menguiano L., Sanchez-Portal M., Bongiovanni A.,
Sanchez S. F., Jimenez A., Miura R. E., Torres-Rios G.,
Villalba-Gonzalez P., Gonzalez-Koda Y. K., Bidaran B., Alcazar-Laynez M.,
Zurita A., Florido E., Vasquez-Bustos P.
<Astron. Astrophys. 712, A227 (2026)>
=2026A&A...712A.227E 2026A&A...712A.227E (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, nearby ; Spectroscopy ; Photometry ; Optical ;
Millimetric/submm sources ; Interstellar medium ; Redshifts ;
Stars, masses ; Molecular data ; Star Forming Region ;
Galaxies, radius ; Morphology
Keywords: ISM: molecules - galaxies: ISM - galaxies: star formation -
galaxies: stellar content - galaxies: structure -
large-scale structure of Universe
Abstract:
The environment plays a key role in galaxy evolution, yet it remains
unclear how detailed molecular gas properties and their connection to
star formation and stellar content are influenced by both large-scale
and local environments. Here we introduce the ALMA CO-CAVITY project,
the first interferome tric CO(1-0) survey of a large sample of 41 void
galaxies (VGs) to characterise in detail their molecular gas
properties. It is built over the CAVITY proje ct, offering optical
integral field unit (IFU) data, enabling a direct, pixel-to-pixel
comparison between molecular gas (from ALMA), star formation, and
stellar properties, as well as the derivation of their scaling
relations. In this work we present ALMA data products for our sample,
containing data cubes, moment maps and position-velocity diagrams at
angular resolutions of 1 arcsec. We also present molecular gas,
stellar mass, and star formation rate surface density maps at a common
resolution of 2.5 arcsec. We contextualise our sample against
representative unresolved and resolved surveys. While our sample
provides a good representation of the VG population and follows the
distribution of key properties seen in star-forming galaxy samples,
galaxies included in resolved studies from the literature tend to be
more massive, less isolated, and located in denser large-scale
environments. We present global scaling relat ions for the ALMA
CO-CAVITY sample and find that the molecular gas main sequence
exhibits the smallest scatter (0.21 dex), followed by the
Schmidt-Kennicutt relation and the star-forming main sequence. From
integrated properties alone, we find that these scaling relations for
VGs are compatible with those for denser environments. This paper lays
the foundation for forthcoming studies exploiting this unique dataset.
Description:
Voids are an integral part of the cosmic web, representing around 70%
of te volume of the Universe. Voids originate from the primordial
Gaussian field of density fluctuations. As a result of their under
density, they represent regions of weaker gravity, and therefore they
may expand faster than the Hubble flow. The pristine environment of
voids represents an ideal setting for the study of galaxy formation
and evolution since they may still be accreting gas from the
intergalactic medium (IGM) and are unaffected by the processes
modifying galaxies in high-density environments. In the ALMA CO-CAVITY
project we study a rigorously selected, representative sample of void
galaxies with a unique set of ancillary data, to measure for the first
time their molecular gas content, distribution, and kinematics, and
relate it to spatially resolved SFRs and SFHs as well as
characteristic scaling relations at scales of about 1kpc. We then
compare with previous surveys which in general represent galaxies in
higher density regions and perhaps a greater chance of local
interactions.
The selected galaxy sample is drawn from the CAVITY sample which is
based on the Catalogue of Cosmic Voids. The sample ranges redshift z
from 0.005 to 0.050, with inclinations between 20° and 70°,
requiring at least 20 galaxies per void and excluding objects near the
edges of the SDSS footprint. From the CAVITY sample, the selection
criteria that yields the 41 galaxies in ALMA CO-CAVITY are: 1)
Declination Dec<30°, so that they are easily observable from the
ALMA site, 2) M*>109M☉, 3) metallicity 12+log(O/H)>8.4
(otherwise, the galactic CO-to-molecular gas mass ratio may not
apply), 4) with IFU data, either from CAVITY, or archival data (MaNGA,
CALIFA, VGS), 5) with H I data from the literature, and 6) with
optical sizes of at least d25 > 20" (where d25 = 3 * r90, being
r90 the radius containing 90% of the Petrosian flux in the r-band).
Finally, we prioritised galaxies that belonged to a few voids in order
to have information as complete as possible for individual voids, and
to minimise time spent on calibration as most members of a void are
grouped to be observed subsequently and share calibration data.
As optical images show, galaxies are mostly blue spiral galaxies
without strong signs of interaction. In table1.dat, we list individual
main properties for each galaxy from combined catalogs data. To
complete, in table2.dat, we provide the environmental properties of
the ALMA CO-CAVITY sample as including the distance to the centre of
the void, informations about neighbours as distances and numbers,
local density. Concerning ALMA observations, we carried out with band
3 receiver through program 2022.1.00482.S. Angular resolution is
ensured superior to optical IFU data from CAVITY. We focused on
CO(1-0) quantities. Also, we use the CAVITY/MANGA IFU data to obtain
spatially resolved stellar, SFR and gas-phase metallicity maps, among
other properties. Gas mass and stellar properties are provided in
table1.dat and table3.dat as logMH2 based on CO(1-0) luminosity and
αCO factor. More, these tables summarise the observational and
processing characteristics of the ALMA datasets used in this work.
Finally, in tablec1.dat, we compared out extracted ALMA fluxes and
molecular gas masses to the IRAM 30m CO(1-0) observations quantities
originated from Rodriguez et al. (2024A&A...692A.125R 2024A&A...692A.125R,
Cat. J/A+A/692/A125).
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 92 41 Main galaxy properties of ALMA CO-CAVITY sample
table2.dat 42 41 Environmental properties of the ALMA CO-CAVITY
galaxies sample
table3.dat 62 41 Molecular gas masses of ALMA CO-CAVITY sample
tablec1.dat 96 41 Global molecular gas properties of the ALMA
CO-CAVITY sample
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See also:
J/A+A/692/A125 : Molecular gas in void galaxies (Rodriguez+, 2024)
J/A+A/578/A110 : Isolated galaxies, pairs and triplets
(Argudo-Fernandez+, 2015)
J/MNRAS/476/3661 : Morphology of SDSS galaxies (Dominguez Sanchez+, 2018)
J/MNRAS/415/1188 : Galaxies in the Lynx-Cancer void (Pustilnik+, 2011)
J/ApJ/903/145 : ALMaQUEST. IV. ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching & star formation
(Lin+, 2020)
J/ApJ/846/159 : Interferometric CO obs. of 126 CALIFA galaxies
(Bolatto+, 2017)
J/ApJ/834/186 : Metallicity of MPA-JHU SDSS-DR7 dwarf galaxies
(Douglass+, 2017)
J/ApJS/262/36 : SDSS-IV MaNGA: pyPipe3D data for 10000 galaxies
(Sanchez+, 2022)
J/ApJS/233/22 : xCOLD GASS catalog (Saintonge+, 2017)
J/AJ/144/16 : Optical and HI properties of galaxies in voids
(Kreckel+, 2012)
II/294 : The SDSS Photometric Catalog, Release 7
(Adelman-McCarthy+, 2009)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 5 I5 --- ID CAVITY identifier in the CAVITY sample
7- 16 F10.6 deg RAdeg Right ascension (ICRS) from SDSS DR7 of
Adelman-McCarthy et al.
2009ApJS..182..543A 2009ApJS..182..543A, Cat. II/294 (ra)
18- 26 F9.6 deg DEdeg Declination (ICRS) from SDSS DR7 of
Adelman-McCarthy et al.
2009ApJS..182..543A 2009ApJS..182..543A, Cat. II/294 (dec)
28- 33 F6.4 --- z Redshift from SDSS DR7 Adelman-McCarthy et
al. 2009ApJS..182..543A 2009ApJS..182..543A, Cat. II/294 (z)
35- 39 F5.1 Mpc DL Luminosity distance (DL)
41- 44 F4.1 arcsec D25 Diameter at 25 mag isophote as 3*R90,r
(d25)
46- 49 F4.1 deg i Inclination as arccos(b/a) (Incl)
51- 55 F5.1 deg PA Position angle from North to East (PA)
57- 61 F5.2 --- TType Morphological T-type from Dominguez
Sanchez et al. 2018MNRAS.476.3661D 2018MNRAS.476.3661D,
at. J/MNRAS/476/3661 (TType)
63- 67 F5.2 [Msun] logM* Logarithm of stellar mass from MPA-JHU DR7
of Douglass et al. 2017ApJ...834..186D 2017ApJ...834..186D,
Cat. J/ApJ/834/186 (logMstar)
69- 72 F4.2 [Msun] e_logM* Uncertainty in log stellar mass (e_logMstar)
74- 79 F6.3 [Msun/yr] logSFR Logarithm of star formation rate
(Halpha-based)
81- 85 F5.3 [Msun/yr] e_logSFR Uncertainty in log SFR
87- 88 A2 --- SFtype Star formation class [SF/TZ/SB] (1)
90- 92 F3.1 [-] [O/H] The 12+log(O/H) metallicity O3N2 from
Pettini & Pagel 2004MNRAS.348L..59P 2004MNRAS.348L..59P (OH)
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Note (1): Star formation classes are as follows:
SF = Star-forming, 25 sources in our sample
SB = Scheduling Block, 10 sources in our sample
TZ = Transition Zone, 6 sources in our sample
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: table2.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 5 I5 --- ID CAVITY identifier in the CAVITY sample (ID)
7- 9 I3 --- Void Void ID from Pan et al. 2012MNRAS.421..926P 2012MNRAS.421..926P
(Void)
11- 14 F4.2 --- r/Reff Normalized void-centric distance r/Reff
(r_Reff)
16 I1 --- NnTR24 Number of neighbours within 0.45 Mpc and
± 160 km/s of Torres-Rios et al.
2024A&A...691A.341T 2024A&A...691A.341T, Tempel et al.
2017A&A...602A.100T 2017A&A...602A.100T assigned to 0 for
singlet cases (Nneigh_TR24)
18 I1 --- NnAF15 Number of neighbours within 1 Mpc and
± 500 km/s Argudo et al. 2015A&A...578A.110A 2015A&A...578A.110A,
Cat. J/A+A/578/A110 assigned to 0 for isolated
cases (Nneigh_AF15)
20- 23 F4.2 Mpc Dnn ? Projected distance to nearest neighbour
empty if not available (d_nn)
25- 29 F5.2 --- Etak ? Local projected density from NSA catalog and
Mr < -18.3 assigned empty if not meaningful
(eta_k)
31- 34 F4.2 Mpc Dkn ? Projected distance to k-th nearest neighbour
assigned empty if not available (d_kn)
36- 40 F5.2 --- Etakcor ? Corrected local projected density without
magnitude cut assigned empty if not meaningful
(etakcorr)
42 A1 --- Asym Optical asymmetry flag assigned Y for
asymmetric (Asymmetry)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table3.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 5 I5 --- ID CAVITY identifier in the CAVITY sample (ID)
7- 11 F5.3 [Msun] logMH2 Logarithm of molecular gas mass from ALMA
(logMH2_ALMA)
13- 17 F5.3 [Msun] e_logMH2 ? Uncertainty in logMH2 (elogMH2ALMA)
19- 36 F18.16 --- alphaCO CO-to-H2 conversion factor of Rodriguez et
al. 2024A&A...692A.125R 2024A&A...692A.125R, Cat. J/A+A/692/A125
(alphaCO)
38- 50 A13 --- ALMA Detection flag for ALMA observations
(Det_ALMA)
52- 56 F5.2 [-] DH2MS Offset from the molecular gas main sequence
MGMS of Janowiecki et al. 2020MNRAS.493.1982J 2020MNRAS.493.1982J
(Delta_H2MS)
58- 62 F5.2 [-] DSFMS Offset from the star formation main sequence
SFMS of Janowiecki et al. 2020MNRAS.493.1982J 2020MNRAS.493.1982J
(Delta_SFMS)
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: tablec1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 5 I5 --- ID CAVITY identifier in the CAVITY sample (ID)
7- 11 F5.2 Jy.km/s FIRAM ? Aperture-corrected CO(1-0) flux from IRAM
30m observations Rodriguez et al.
2024A&A...692A.125R 2024A&A...692A.125R, Cat. J/A+A/692/A125 as
blank if not observed (FIRAMcorr)
13- 15 F3.1 Jy.km/s e_FIRAM ? Uncertainty in FIRAM (eFIRAM_corr)
17- 21 F5.2 Jy.km/s FALMA CO(1-0) flux from ALMA CO-CAVITY
observations (F_ALMA)
23- 26 F4.2 Jy.km/s e_FALMA ? Uncertainty in FALMA (eFALMA)
28- 45 F18.16 --- alphaCO CO-to-H2 conversion factor Rodriguez et al.
2024A&A...692A.125R 2024A&A...692A.125R, Cat. J/A+A/692/A125
(alphaCO)
47- 51 F5.3 [Msun] logMH2i ? Logarithm of molecular gas mass from IRAM
30m using alphaCO (logMH2_IRAM)
53- 57 F5.3 [Msun] e_logMH2i ? Uncertainty in logMH2i (elogMH2IRAM)
59- 63 F5.3 [Msun] logMH2a Logarithm of molecular gas mass from ALMA
using alphaCO (logMH2_ALMA)
65- 69 F5.3 [Msun] e_logMH2a ? Uncertainty in logMH2a (elogMH2ALMA)
71- 82 A12 --- IRAM Detection flag for IRAM observations as
Detected, Non-detected and NaN not observed
(Det_IRAM)
84- 96 A13 --- ALMA Detection flag for ALMA observations as
Detected, Non-Detection (Det_ALMA)
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Acknowledgements:
Daniel Espada, despada(at)ugr.es
License: CC-BY-4.0
(End) Luc Trabelsi [CDS] 01-Jun-2026