CHILES. XI. Resolved H I Morphologies and the Evolution of the H2/H I Ratio over the Last Five Billion Years

Journal article, 2026

We present the neutral gas morphology of four galaxies from z = 0.22 to 0.47 obtained with the COSMOS H i Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES). The H i is resolved at the highest redshift with the 7"5 beam of CHILES and 43 kpc linear scale, with all four galaxies having extended H I. Three are massive galaxies (M-* > 3 & times; 10(10) M-circle dot), with H i masses of (1.6-6.7) & times; 10(10 )M(circle dot) and active star formation (3-30 M-circle dot yr(-1)). The morphology and kinematics of the galaxies vary from regular to disturbed, including an asymmetric H i disk surrounding the fourth smaller galaxy (M* similar to 109 M-circle dot). CO (1-0) observations of the sample, obtained with the Large Millimeter Telescope, confirm the redshifts of three of the four galaxies, and we derive H2 masses of (0.4-5.2) & times; 10(10) M-circle dot. JWST imaging with four combined NIRCam filters reveals disturbed stellar components with compact knots in two of the galaxies. We combine our new higher-redshift galaxies with previously published observations to conduct a more complete study of H i and H2 evolution in the redshift range 0-0.5. With our H i flux-limited observations compared to similar lower-redshift galaxies with high stellar mass (M* > 10(10) M-circle dot), the results show that the mean H2/H i ratio at the highest redshift is 10.3 +/- 3.4, larger than the mean H-2/H i ratio in the local Universe.