HI imaging of galaxies in X-ray bright groups

Environment plays an important role in the evolution of the gas contents of galaxies. Gas deficiency of cluster spirals and the role of the hot intracluster medium in stripping gas from these galaxies is a well-studied subject. Loose groups with diffuse X-ray emission from the intragroup medium (IGM) offer an intermediate environment between clusters and groups without a hot IGM. These X-ray bright groups have smaller velocity dispersion and lower temperature than clusters, but higher IGM density than loose groups without diffuse X-ray emission. A single-dish comparative study of loose groups with and without diffuse X-ray emission from the IGM, showed that the galaxies in X-ray bright groups have lost more gas on average than the galaxies in non X-ray bright groups. In this paper we present GMRT HI observations of 13 galaxies from four X-ray bright groups: NGC 5044, 720, 1550 and IC1459. The aim of this work is to study the morphology of HI in these galaxies and to see if the hot IGM has in any way affected their HI content or distribution. In addition to disturbed HI morphology, we find that most galaxies have shrunken HI discs compared to the field spirals. This indicates that IGM-assisted stripping processes like ram pressure may have stripped gas from the outer edges of the galaxies.