The H I Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) catalogue forms the largest uniform catalogue of H I sources compiled to date, with 4315 sources identified purely by their H I content. The catalogue data comprise the southern region δ < + 2 • of HIPASS, the first blind H I survey to cover the entire southern sky. The rms noise for this survey is 13 mJy beam −1 and the velocity range is −1280 to 12 700 km s −1 . Data search, verification and parametrization methods are discussed along with a description of measured quantities. Full catalogue data are made available to the astronomical community including positions, velocities, velocity widths, integrated fluxes and peak flux densities. Also available are on-sky moment maps, position-velocity moment maps and spectra of catalogue sources. A number of local large-scale features are observed in the space distribution of sources, including the super-Galactic plane and the Local Void. Notably, large-scale structure is seen at low Galactic latitudes, a region normally obscured at optical wavelengths.

Many of the results in modern astrophysics rest on the notion that the Initial Mass Function (IMF) is universal. Our observations of a sample of H I selected galaxies in the light of Hα and the far-ultraviolet (FUV) challenge this result. The extinction corrected flux ratio F Hα / f FUV from these two tracers of star formation shows strong correlations with the surface-brightness in Hα and the R band: Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies have lower F Hα / f FUV ratios compared to High Surface Brightness (HSB) galaxies as well as compared to expectations from equilibrium models of constant star formation rate (SFR) using commonly favored IMF parameters. Weaker but significant correlations of F Hα / f FUV with luminosity, rotational velocity and dynamical mass are found as well as a systematic trend with morphology. The correlated variations of F Hα / f FUV with other global parameters are thus part of the larger family of galaxy scaling relations. The F Hα / f FUV correlations can not be due to residual extinction correction errors, while systematic variations in the star formation history can not explain the trends with both Hα and R surface brightness nor with other global properties. The possibility that LSB galaxies have a higher escape fraction of ionizing photons seems inconsistent with their high gas fraction, and observations of color-magnitude diagrams of a few systems which indicate a real deficit of O stars. The most plausible explanation for the correlations is the systematic variations of the upper mass limit M u and/or the slope γ which define the upper end of the IMF. We outline a scenario of pressure driving the correlations by setting the efficiency of the formation of the dense star clusters where the highest mass stars preferentially form. Our results imply that the star formation rate measured in a galaxy is highly sensitive to the tracer used in the measurement. A non-universal IMF would also call into question interpretation of metal abundance patterns in dwarf galaxies as well star formation histories derived from color magnitude diagrams.

We revisit the Hi size-mass (D HI -M HI ) relation of galaxies with a sample of more than 500 nearby galaxies covering over five orders of magnitude in Hi mass and more than ten B-band magnitudes. The relation is remarkably tight with a scatter σ ∼0.06 dex, or 14%. The scatter does not change as a function of galaxy luminosity, Hi richness or morphological type. The relation is linked to the fact that dwarf and spiral galaxies have a homogenous radial profile of Hi surface density in the outer regions when the radius is normalised by D HI . The early-type disk galaxies typically have shallower Hi radial profiles, indicating a different gas accretion history. We argue that the process of atomic-to-molecular gas conversion or star formation cannot explain the tightness of the D HI -M HI relation. This simple relation puts strong constraints on simulation models for galaxy formation.