AGC 322753: a Dark Galaxy Candidate detected by ALFALFA and FASHI

arXiv:2609.39152 · astro-ph.GA · Submitted 2026-09-30 · Read on arXiv

astro-ph.GA

Submitted: 2026-09-30

Updated: 2026-09-30

Comments: 7 pages, 4 figures, and 12 pages of Supplementary Material. Accepted for publication as a Letter in MNRAS

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The gist: We report the possible detection of a Dark Galaxy Candidate (DGC; AGC 322753), via the cross-matching of the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) and the FAST All Sky HI (FASHI) HI blind surveys.

Terminology

Abstract

We report the possible detection of a Dark Galaxy Candidate (DGC; AGC 322753), via the cross-matching of the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) and the FAST All Sky HI (FASHI) HI blind surveys. It is detected by both surveys at the same recessional velocity, with a comparable HI mass of 2 times10 9 M, and with similar HI spectral features. The ALFALFA and FASHI spectra show a double-peaked profile, compatible with a disc-like ordered rotation, and an HI linewidth at 50 per cent of the peak (W 50) of about 85 km s-1. The common intersection of the two beams allows the source position to be constrained with much greater precision than in either survey individually. Being detected by both radio telescopes, a Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) origin is excluded. No evidence of an optical counterpart was found down to about 27.5 mag arcsec-2 in the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys, which leads to a stellar mass limit of M 5 times10 7 M. Given this stellar mass limit, AGC 322753 has M HI/M 40. The HI mass is higher than expected for totally starless haloes; this could imply that AGC 322753 is not completely 'dark' but could host a luminous counterpart below the current optical detection limit.

Sources

Related papers