H i observations of giant low surface brightness galaxies ^*,**

¹ National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
² Unité Scientifique Nançay, USR CNRS B704, Observatoire de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
³ DAEC, UMR CNRS 8631, Observatoire de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France

Corresponding author: L. D. Matthews, lmatthew@nrao.edu

Received: 12 July 2000
Accepted: 22 September 2000

Abstract

We have used the Nançay Radio Telescope to obtain new global H i data for 16 giant low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies. Our targets have optical luminosities and disk scale lengths at the high end for spiral galaxies ( and kpc for km s^-1 Mpc^-1), but they have diffuse stellar disks, with mean disk surface brightnesses magnitude fainter than normal giant spirals. Thirteen of the galaxies previously had been detected in H i by other workers, but the published H i observations were either confused, resolved by the telescope beam, of low signal-to-noise, or showed significant discrepancies between different authors. For the other 3 galaxies, no H i data were previously available. Several of the galaxies were resolved by the Nançay #1' . #2 E-W beam, so global parameters were derived from multiple-point mapping observations. Typical H i masses for our sample are , with (in solar units). All of the observed galaxies have published optical surface photometry, and we have compiled key optical measurements for these objects from the literature. We frequently find significant variations among physical parameters of giant LSB galaxies reported by various workers.