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The cold interstellar medium (ISM) as the raw material for star formation is critical to understanding galaxy evolution. It is generally understood that galaxies stop making stars when, in one way or another, they run out of gas. However, here we provide evidence that central spiral galaxies remain rich in atomic gas even if their star formation rate and molecular gas fraction have dropped significantly compared to "normal" star-forming galaxies of the same mass. Since HI is sensitive to external processes, here we investigate central spiral galaxies using a combined sample from SDSS, ALFALFA, and xGASS surveys. After proper incompleteness corrections, we find that the key HI scaling relations for central spirals show significant but regular systematic dependence on stellar mass. At any given stellar mass, the HI gas mass fraction is about constant with changing specific star formation rate (sSFR), which suggests that HI reservoir is ubiquitous in central spirals with any star formation status down to M* ~ 10^9 Msun. Together with the tight correlation between the molecular gas mass fraction and sSFR for galaxies across a wide range of different properties, it suggests that the decline of SFR of all central spirals in the local universe is due to the halt of H2 supply, though there is plenty of HI gas around. These hence provide critical observations of the dramatically different behavior of the cold multi-phase ISM, and a key to understand the star formation process and quenching mechanism., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures; Accepted for publication in the ApJL; This is the fourth paper in the "From Haloes to Galaxies" series

Recent studies have revealed a strong relation between sample-averaged black-hole (BH) accretion rate (BHAR) and star formation rate (SFR) among bulge-dominated galaxies, i.e., "lockstep" BH-bulge growth, in the distant universe. This relation might be closely related to the BH-bulge mass correlation observed in the local universe. To understand further BH-bulge coevolution, we present ALMA CO(2-1) or CO(3-2) observations of 7 star-forming bulge-dominated galaxies at z=0.5-2.5. Using the ALMA data, we detect significant ($>3\sigma$) CO emission from 4 objects. For our sample of 7 galaxies, we measure (or constrain with upper limits) their CO line fluxes and estimate molecular gas masses ($M_{gas}$). We also estimate their stellar masses ($M_{star}$) and SFRs by modelling their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Using these physical properties, we derive the gas-depletion timescales ($t_{dep} = M_{gas}/SFR$) and compare them with the bulge/BH growth timescales ($t_{grow} = M_{star}/SFR \sim M_{BH}/BHAR$). Our sample generally has $t_{dep}$ shorter than $t_{grow}$ by a median factor of $\gtrsim 4$, indicating that the cold gas will be depleted before significant bulge/BH growth takes place. This result suggests that the BH-bulge lockstep growth is mainly responsible for maintaining their mass relation, not creating it. We note that our sample is small and limited to $z<2.5$; JWST and ALMA will be able to probe to higher redshifts in the near future., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, and 3 tables. Accepted by ApJ

Black hole feedback has been widely implemented as the key recipe to quench star formation in massive galaxies in modern semi-analytic models and hydrodynamical simulations. As the theoretical details surrounding the accretion and feedback of black holes continue to be refined, various feedback models have been implemented across simulations, with notable differences in their outcomes. Yet, most of these simulations have successfully reproduced some observations, such as stellar mass function and star formation rate density in the local Universe. We use the recent observation on the change of neutral hydrogen gas mass (including both ${\rm H_2}$ and ${\rm HI}$) with star formation rate of massive central disc galaxies as a critical constraint of black hole feedback models across several simulations. We find that the predictions of IllustrisTNG agree with the observations much better than the other models tested in this work. This favors IllustrisTNG's treatment of active galactic nuclei - where kinetic winds are driven by black holes at low accretion rates - as more plausible amongst those we test. In turn, this also indirectly supports the idea that the massive central disc galaxy population in the local Universe was likely quenched by AGN feedback., Comment: 15 pages, 3+4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The MAMMOTH-1 nebula at $z=2.317$ is an enormous Ly$\alpha$ nebula (ELAN) extending to a $\sim$440 kpc scale at the center of the extreme galaxy overdensity BOSS 1441. In this paper, we present observations of the $\rm CO(3-2)$ and 250 GHz dust-continuum emission from the MAMMOTH-1 using the IRAM NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array. Our observations show that $\rm CO(3-2)$ emission in this ELAN has not extended widespread emission into the circum- and inter-galactic media. We also find a remarkable concentration of six massive galaxies in $\rm CO(3-2)$ emission in the central $\sim$100 kpc region of the ELAN. Their velocity dispersions suggest a total halo mass of $M_{200c} \sim 10^{13.1} M_{\odot}$, marking a possible protocluster core associated with the ELAN. The peak position of the $\rm CO(3-2)$ line emission from the obscured AGN is consistent with the location of the intensity peak of MAMMOTH-1 in the rest-frame UV band. Its luminosity line ratio between the $\rm CO(3-2)$ and $\rm CO(1-0)$ $r_{3,1}$ is 0.61$\pm$0.17. The other five galaxies have $\rm CO(3-2)$ luminosities in the range of (2.1-7.1)$\times 10^9$ K $\rm km\,s^{-1}$ pc$^2$, with the star-formation rates derived from the 250GHz continuum of ($<$36)-224 $M_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$. Follow-up spectroscopic observations will further confirm more member galaxies and improve the accuracy of the halo mass estimation., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

In Dou et al. (2021), we introduced the Fundamental Formation Relation (FFR), a tight relation between specific SFR (sSFR), H$_2$ star formation efficiency (SFE$_{\rm H_2}$), and the ratio of H$_2$ to stellar mass. Here we show that atomic gas HI does not follow a similar FFR as H$_2$. The relation between SFE$_{\rm HI}$ and sSFR shows significant scatter and strong systematic dependence on all of the key galaxy properties that we have explored. The dramatic difference between HI and H$_2$ indicates that different processes (e.g., quenching by different mechanisms) may have very different effects on the HI in different galaxies and hence produce different SFE$_{\rm HI}$-sSFR relations, while the SFE$_{\rm H_2}$-sSFR relation remains unaffected. The facts that SFE$_{\rm H_2}$-sSFR relation is independent of other key galaxy properties, and that sSFR is directly related to the cosmic time and acts as the cosmic clock, make it natural and very simple to study how different galaxy populations (with different properties and undergoing different processes) evolve on the same SFE$_{\rm H_2}$-sSFR $\sim t$ relation. In the gas regulator model (GRM), the evolution of a galaxy on the SFE$_{\rm H_2}$-sSFR($t$) relation is uniquely set by a single mass-loading parameter $\lambda_{\rm net,H_2}$. This simplicity allows us to accurately derive the H$_2$ supply and removal rates of the local galaxy populations with different stellar masses, from star-forming galaxies to the galaxies in the process of being quenched. This combination of FFR and GRM, together with the stellar metallicity requirement, provide a new powerful tool to study galaxy formation and evolution., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The phenomenological study of evolving galaxy populations has shown that star forming galaxies can be quenched by two distinct processes: mass quenching and environment quenching (Peng et al. 2010). To explore the mass quenching process in local galaxies, we study the massive central disk galaxies with stellar mass above the Schechter characteristic mass. In Zhang et al. (2019), we showed that during the quenching of the massive central disk galaxies as their star formation rate (SFR) decreases, their molecular gas mass and star formation efficiency drop rapidly, but their HI gas mass remains surprisingly constant. To identify the underlying physical mechanisms, in this work we analyze the change during quenching of various structure parameters, bar frequency, and active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity. We find three closely related facts. On average, as SFR decreases in these galaxies: (1) they become progressively more compact, indicated by their significantly increasing concentration index, bulge-to-total mass ratio, and central velocity dispersion, which are mainly driven by the growth and compaction of their bulge component; (2) the frequency of barred galaxies increases dramatically, and at a given concentration index the barred galaxies have a significantly higher quiescent fraction than unbarred galaxies, implying that the galactic bar may play an important role in mass quenching; and (3) the "AGN" frequency increases dramatically from 10% on the main sequence to almost 100% for the most quiescent galaxies, which is mainly driven by the sharp increase of LINERs. These observational results lead to a self-consistent picture of how mass quenching operates., Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. Published in ApJ

Star formation and quenching are two of the most important processes in galaxy formation and evolution. We explore in the local Universe the interrelationships among key integrated galaxy properties, including stellar mass $M_*$, star formation rate (SFR), specific SFR (sSFR), molecular gas mass $M_{\rm H_2}$, star formation efficiency (SFE) of the molecular gas and molecular gas to stellar mass ratio $\mu$. We aim to identify the most fundamental scaling relations among these key galaxy properties and their interrelationships. We show the integrated $M_{\rm H_2}$-SFR, SFR-$M_*$ and $M_{\rm H_2}$-$M_*$ relation can be simply transformed from the $\mu$-sSFR, SFE-$\mu$ and SFE-sSFR relation, respectively. The transformation, in principle, can increase or decrease the scatter of each relation. Interestingly, we find the latter three relations all have significantly smaller scatter than the former three corresponding relations. We show the probability to achieve the observed small scatter by accident is extremely close to zero. This suggests that the smaller scatters of the latter three relations are driven by a more fundamental physical connection among these quantities. We then show the large scatters in the former relations are due to their systematic dependence on other galaxy properties, and on star formation and quenching process. We propose the sSFR-$\mu$-SFE relation as the Fundamental Formation Relation (FFR), which governs the star formation and quenching process, and provides a simple framework to study galaxy evolution. Other scaling relations, including integrated Kennicutt-Schmidt law, star-forming main sequence and molecular gas main sequence, can all be derived from the FFR., Comment: This is the revised version accepted for publication in ApJ

We present a submillimetre continuum survey ('SCUBA2 High rEdshift bRight quasaR surveY', hereafter SHERRY) of 54 high redshift quasars at $5.63.5\sigma$). The new SHERRY detections indicate far-infrared (FIR) luminosities of $\rm 3.5\times10^{12}$ to $\rm 1.4\times10^{13}$ $L_{\odot}$, implying extreme star formation rates of 90 to 1060 $M_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ in the quasar host galaxies. Compared with $z =$ 2$-$5 samples, the FIR luminous quasars ($L_{\rm FIR} > 10^{13}\,L_{\odot}$) are more rare at $z \sim 6$. The optical/near-infrared (NIR) spectra of these objects show 11% (6/54) of the sources have weak Ly$\alpha$, emission line features, which may relate to different sub-phases of the central active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Our SCUBA2 survey confirms the trend reported in the literature that quasars with submillimeter detections tend to have weaker ultraviolet (UV) emission lines compared to quasars with nondetections. The connection between weak UV quasar line emission and bright dust continuum emission powered by massive star formation may suggest an early phase of AGN-galaxy evolution, in which the broad line region is starting to develop slowly or is shielded from the central ionization source, and has unusual properties such as weak line features or bright FIR emission., Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, published in ApJ

The massive galaxy population above the characteristic Schechter mass M*~10^10.6 Msun contributes to about half of the total stellar mass in the local Universe. These massive galaxies usually reside in hot dark matter haloes above the critical shock-heating mass ~10^12 Msun, where the external cold gas supply to these galaxies is expected to be suppressed. When galaxies run out of their cold gas reservoir, they become dead and quiescent. Therefore, massive quiescent galaxies living in hot haloes are commonly believed to be gas-poor. Based on the data from SDSS, ALFALFA, GASS and COLD GASS surveys, here we show that the vast majority of the massive, quiescent, central disk galaxies in the nearby Universe have a remarkably large amount of cold atomic hydrogen gas, surprisingly similar to star-forming galaxies. Both star-forming and quiescent disk galaxies show identical symmetric double-horn HI spectra, indicating similar regularly rotating HI disks. Relative to their star-forming counterparts, massive quiescent central disk galaxies are quenched because of their significantly reduced molecular gas content, lower dust content, and lower star formation efficiency. Our findings reveal a new picture, which clearly demonstrates the detailed star-formation quenching process in massive galaxies and provides a stringent constraint on the physical mechanism of quenching., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures (+2 figures in the appendix); accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters