HI in Early-Type Galaxies

Abstract

We briefly discuss the main differences between the HI properties of luminous and low-luminosity early-type galaxies. In luminous early-type galaxies the HI is often irregularly distributed, but in a few cases regular HI disks, of low surface density, are seen. In low-luminosity galaxies, the HI is more often in a disk with high central surface densities. This suggests a different evolution of the gas in these two groups of galaxies.

To appear in the proceedings of the conference "Gas and Galaxy Evolution" (ASP Conference Series), eds. J. Hibbard, M. Rupen, and J. van Gorkom