The Void Galaxy Survey: Optical Properties and H I Morphology and Kinematics

We have carefully selected a sample of 60 galaxies that reside in the deepest underdensities of geometrically identified voids within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. H I imaging of 55 galaxies with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope reveals morphological and kinematic signatures of ongoing interactions and gas accretion. We probe a total volume of 485 Mpc3 within the voids, with an angular resolution of 8 kpc at an average distance of 85 Mpc. We reach column density sensitivities of 5 × 1019 cm-2, corresponding to an H I mass limit of 3 × 108 M ⊙. We detect H I in 41 galaxies, with total masses ranging from 1.7 × 108 to 5.5 × 109 M ⊙. The upper limits on the 14 non-detections are not inconsistent with their luminosities, given their expected H I mass-to-light ratios. We find that the void galaxies are generally gas-rich, low-luminosity, blue disk galaxies, with optical and H I properties that are not unusual for their luminosity and morphology. The sample spans a range of absolute magnitudes (-16.1 > Mr > -20.4) and colors (0.06