Ionizing radiation escape enabled by galaxy merger in

reionization-era analog galaxy

Alexandra Le Reste*1, John M. Cannon2, Matthew J. Hayes1, John L. Inoue2, Amanda A.
Kepley3, Jens Melinder1, Veronica Menacho1, Angela Adamo1, Arjan Bik1, Timmy
Ejdetjärn1, Gyula I. G. Józsa4,5, Göran Östlin1, Sarah H. Taft2,6
1. The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-
10691 Stockholm, Sweden. 2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macalester College,
1600 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105, USA. 3. National Radio Astronomy
Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475, USA 4. Max-Planck-
Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany 5. Department of
Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, P.O. Box 94, Makhanda, 6140, South Africa 6.
Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of
Minnesota, 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.

Around 400 million years after the big bang, ultraviolet emission (Lyman Continuum,
LyC) from star-forming galaxies drove the reionization of the Universe. How this
radiation escapes the cold neutral gas (HI) of galaxies with sufficiently little absorption
to reionize the intergalactic medium is poorly understood. HI has never been mapped in
confirmed LyC-emitters, leaving major uncertainties on how LyC photons escape
galaxies and ionize the intergalactic medium. We imaged the 21cm HI emission of
nearby reionization-era analog galaxy Haro 11 to identify how ionizing radiation
escapes the neutral interstellar medium. We find that merger-driven interactions have
tidally displaced up to 82% of the neutral gas from the ultraviolet emission production
sites in the galaxy, allowing the escape of ionizing radiation to the intergalactic medium.
Increased galaxy interactions in the early Universe predicted by cosmological models
could contribute significantly to the reionization of the Universe.

The Universe underwent a major phase change in which almost all intergalactic hydrogen
was ionized about 13 billion years ago1. This reionization was driven by strong ultraviolet
(UV) emission from primeval star-forming galaxies2,3,4. LyC emission is absorbed by cold
neutral hydrogen gas in galaxies, hindering the escape of ionizing radiation. Observations of
galaxies at this epoch lack resolution, thus nearby analogs of early galaxies have been used to
understand the detailed physical processes responsible for reionization5,6,7,8,9. UV absorption
line measurements suggest that the main property driving LyC escape is a low covering
fraction of the neutral gas10,11, with LyC photons escaping through ionized channels within
the interstellar medium. However, measurements in the UV do not characterize the
interstellar medium in the full physical volume covered by dense neutral gas in galaxies. The
21cm line of Hydrogen is the only direct tracer of HI gas that can probe the entire extent of
the material inhibiting LyC escape. HI has never been mapped in confirmed LyC-emitters,
leaving major uncertainties on how LyC photons escape galaxies and ionize the intergalactic
medium12,13,14,15. Furthermore, even with upcoming state-of-the-art facilities, it will be
impossible to observe resolved HI in emission in galaxies at the epoch of reionization16.
Thus, observing HI in nearby galaxies with detected ionizing LyC emission is key to
revealing the gas removal and ionization mechanisms likely at play during the Epoch of
Reionization.
Figure 1: Neutral gas in Haro 11. Panel A: Colour-composite image of Haro 11 with 21cm
contours. High resolution (10”) MeerKAT 21cm emission is shown in blue with blue
contours overlaid, MUSE Hα emission is shown in red and HST optical stellar light in white.
The MeerKAT emission contours are shown with levels {1,2,3,4,5,6,7}× 10!" cm-2
corresponding to the {5,10,15,20,25,30,35}× 𝜎 levels, with lower contours shown in darker
shades of blue. MeerKAT 21cm absorption contours are overlaid in dashed black lines, with
levels {-0.3,-0.2,-0.1} Jy/beam.km/s displayed. The MeerKAT synthesized beam is shown by
a white ellipse in the lower left corner of the image. Panel B: Stellar light in the HST image,
with star-forming knots identified by crosses. In all images, North is up and East is to the left.
Panel C: Low angular resolution (47”) MeerKAT 21cm spectrum integrated over the
detected 21cm, shown in black. The GBT spectrum is shown in gray for comparison. Panel
D: MeerKAT 21cm high angular resolution (10”) emission (blue) and absorption (black)
spectra. The VLA absorption spectrum is shown with gray dots for comparison. Vertical
dashed lines show the velocity centroid range of ionized gas around the star-forming knots,
where the sources emitting the absorbed radio continuum radiation are located.
Haro 11 is the closest (D=93Mpc)17 confirmed LyC-emitting galaxy and one of only three
known LyC-leaking galaxies that can be observed and resolved in 21cm with radio
interferometers18,19,20. The UV photons in this star-forming galaxy are produced in three
distinct regions21,22,23 labeled Knot A, B and C in Fig. 1. Most indirect studies agree on Knot
C as the likely producer of the bulk of LyC photons that were detected24,25,26 due to its Lyα
properties and gas covering fraction derived using lines of metals assumed to be mixed with
HI. Knot B and Knot A both produce large quantities of ionizing photons23,27,28, however
these photons are likely to escape at angles outside of the line of sight26,28,29.
The neutral gas distribution that can allow for the anisotropic escape of ionizing radiation out
of the knots has not been measured. The molecular gas distribution has been measured30, but
molecular gas is not a significant source of LyC opacity. Previous single dish observations of
Haro 11 detected the 21cm in emission13. However, the distribution of the gas has remained
unknown due to insufficient sensitivity of interferometric observations with only unresolved
absorption detections12,15. We observed the galaxy in 21cm with the MeerKAT telescope
which provides increased surface brightness sensitivity as compared to any HI interferometer
previously available.

Results
The MeerKAT 21cm HI image and spectra are presented in Fig. 1 with the optical emission
of Haro 11 from MUSE28 tracing ionized gas and optical stellar light from HST31. We detect
and resolve HI in emission that was previously detected by the Green Bank Telescope
(GBT)13 and detect the unresolved absorption component detected by the NSF's Karl G.
Jansky Very Large Array (VLA)12,15.

Neutral gas content and structure around LyC production regions

The 21cm integrated flux map and spectrum extracted around the star-forming knots which
produce the LyC photons is shown in Fig. 2. The prominent 21cm absorption component
indicates the presence of neutral gas in front of the optical body of the galaxy. The HI
absorption corresponds to a gas mass MHI,abs =3.30 ± 2.41 × 10# M⊙ . The MeerKAT
observation does not resolve the 21cm absorption nor the radio continuum emission absorbed
by the neutral gas, but previous absorption line studies have shown that the interstellar
medium in front of the UV photon production sites is porous25,26. This porosity enables the
escape of LyC photons from their immediate neutral gas environment. Using archival VLA
data, we find radio continuum emission across all star-forming knots (extended data Fig. 3),
with an especially strong source co-spatial with star-forming Knot B (extended data Fig. 4,
5). X-Ray observations of the galaxy found two Ultra Luminous X-ray regions, respectively
overlapping with Knot C and Knot B29,32. This could indicate the presence of a low
luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) in the X-Ray region co-spatial with Knot B. The
radio spectral index of the radio continuum source in Knot B is consistent with that of star-
forming regions33 (extended data Fig. 5). We cannot conclude on the presence or absence of
an AGN with the radio continuum observations. At the location of the 21cm absorption, there
is residual 21cm emission. Since it is not seen in absorption, the emitting 21cm gas at this
location must be located behind the optical body of the galaxy where the radio continuum
sources are located. The 21cm emission component co-spatial with the absorption
corresponds to a flux 0.052±0.053 Jy.km/s.
Figure 2: Neutral gas around the LyC production sites. Left panel: MeerKAT High
angular resolution 21cm integrated flux density map. The dashed white line shows the limits
of the absorption component and the aperture used to extract the spectrum shown in the right
panel. The black crosses indicate the position of the star-forming knots. Right panel:
Spectrum of Haro 11 at the location of the absorption component, shown in black. The blue
line shows the Gaussian fit to the emission component seen at this location. Dashed black
lines show the velocity centroid range of the ionized gas around the star forming knots.

We compare the 21cm absorption feature velocity to that derived from the Hα centroid in
each knot and find that the neutral gas seen in absorption is blueshifted with maximum
velocity vmax = 145±42 km/s compared to the ionized gas. The peak of the 21cm emission
is redshifted by 71±30 km/s. The blueshifted 21cm absorption indicates that the neutral gas
in front of the star-forming knots is moving towards us, and the redshifted 21cm emission
shows the neutral gas behind the star-forming knots is moving away from us. This suggests
that the neutral gas around the optical body of the galaxy is outflowing. Previous studies have
already noted outflows of ionized gas in the galaxy23,26,28,34, and the presence of a multi-phase
outflow with partially neutral gas traced by metal absorption lines23. The MeerKAT
observation shows that the dense cold neutral gas located around the optical body of the
galaxy is also likely outflowing.

Large-scale neutral gas distribution

We then investigate the structure of the neutral gas emission around the galaxy. The bulk of
the HI emission is offset from the main body of the galaxy, in an elongated structure that is
~40 kpc long when projected on the plane of the sky. The HI emission components in
individual velocity channels are found to be connected spatially and spectrally (Fig 6, 7, 8).
The morpho-kinematics of the gas are consistent with the HI emission structure being a tidal
tail from a merger. The merger state of Haro 11 had already been found by studies of the
ionized gas kinematics of the galaxy35,36, but the impact of the merger on the neutral gas
distribution was unknown. The total 21cm emission flux is SHI,em =0.391 ± 0.042 Jy.km/s.
This yields a new mass estimate for the HI in emission MHI,em =7.99 ± 0.85 × 10# M⊙ , a
value higher than that of 5.7 ± 0.8 × 10# M⊙ previously calculated with the single dish
measurement13. Only 13% of the gas mass associated to HI emission is co-spatial with the
star-forming knots. Taking into account the absorbing gas mass MHI,abs =3.30 ±
2.41 × 10# M⊙ , the total atomic hydrogen gas mass of Haro 11 is MHI =1.1 ±
0.3 × 10% M⊙ . While this value is higher than previous estimates, it remains smaller than
the ionized gas mass28 MHα = 1.8 × 10% M⊙ and the stellar mass35 of the galaxy M∗ =
1.6*!.+ +"
'".) × 10 M⊙ . Importantly, up to 82% of the total neutral gas mass in the galaxy is
offset from the ionizing emission production regions due to merger-driven interactions.

Discussion
The HI morphology and kinematics of Haro 11 demonstrates that pathways for LyC escape
exist from the interstellar to the circumgalactic medium. Additionally, these observations
provide a potential link between dwarf galaxy mergers and the detection of LyC emission
from galaxies. Galaxy mergers in low mass systems could play several roles in facilitating the
escape of LyC emission from galaxies. First, mergers create multiple star formation bursts37
during the timescale of the interaction by repeatedly compressing the gas at the center of the
galaxy. These bursts create numerous massive stars, which produce the bulk of LyC emission
in galaxies; thus, mergers increase the intrinsic LyC photon production. Second, starbursts
are also responsible for the intense feedback that creates ionized channels enabling the escape
of LyC photons from their immediate environment38,39. Finally, merger interactions tidally
displace the material inhibiting LyC escape from the center of the galaxy. By creating regions
depleted of HI on large scales, galaxy mergers facilitate the anisotropic escape of LyC
photons out of the interstellar medium and into the intergalactic medium.

In the local Universe, two other LyC-emitting galaxies have been detected that are close
enough to be imaged with interferometers: Tol 1247-23219 and Mrk 5420. Both of these
galaxies show prominent merger morphologies in the optical, however their neutral gas
content is significantly different, with Mrk 54 having a high HI mass40 MHI =1.6 ±
0.2 × 10+" M⊙ , while Tol 1247-232 has an upper limit14 MHI <1 × 10% M⊙ . Given the
morphology of the galaxies, it is likely that a fraction of their HI gas has been removed by
tidal interactions from the lines of sight where LyC is emitted. This would facilitate the
ionization by the starburst and explain how LyC emission can escape from environments with
very different interstellar medium properties.

While they are not directly detected, many galaxies are considered to be LyC candidates due
to their Lyα line profiles or their high [OIII]/[OII] ratios, which indirectly trace LyC
escape7,9,41,42. Among these candidates, many display signs of ongoing merger events that
would facilitate LyC escape. Green pea galaxies are a class of objects considered excellent
analogs of high redshift LyC-emitting galaxies5,43. Single dish 21cm line measurements of
green peas galaxies have suggested that galaxies with high [OIII]/[OII] ratios are less likely
to be detected in 21cm, potentially indicating that galaxies with low HI mass are more likely
to leak LyC radiation44. However, about a fifth of the sample of green pea galaxies studied in
21cm have neutral gas and galaxy properties indicative of either recent gas accretion or the
presence of a gas-rich companion. Recently, HI imaging of the Green Pea galaxy J0213+0056
has shown that a merger could explain Lyα escape in the galaxy, and could potentially lead to
LyC leaking45.

The galaxy merger rate is difficult to measure in the early Universe, however a few
observational studies have found indications of an increase in merger rate at redshift 4 and up
to 646,47. From the simulation perspective, galaxy mergers also seem to be a promising
process facilitating the escape of ionizing LyC radiation during the epoch of reionization.
Indeed, hydrodynamical cosmological simulations predict an increase of mergers with
increasing redshift48. Semi-analytic galaxy formation models also show that galaxies found in
dense environments reside in larger ionized regions49, with galaxies having neighbors being
more likely to show Lyα emission at z=8. However, the environment of galaxies leaking LyC
emission has not yet been studied in a systematic way. While mergers are likely not the only
mechanism responsible for LyC escape from galaxies, they are an effective process that
reunites several of the conditions required for ionizing photons to escape to the Intergalactic
medium. Their contribution to reionization and the impact of galaxy environment on LyC
escape should be assessed from the point of view of simulations and observations alike.

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Methods
Throughout this paper we assume a Hubble constant H0 = 67.4 ± 0.5 km/s/Mpc and a matter
density1 Ωm = 0.315. Using the redshift2 of Haro 11 (z=0.0206), we derive a luminosity
distance of 93 Mpc. Literature values mentioned in this paper have been corrected for this
value.

MeerKAT observations and data reduction

Haro 11 was observed with the MeerKAT interferometer for program SCI-20210212-AL-01
(P.I. Le Reste). The 8.8 hours of on-source integration time were split between two observing
sessions (2021 Feb 20 and 2021 Aug 14). The correlator was configured in the C856M32k
mode, wherein an 856 MHz wide bandpass is separated into 32,000 channels. J0408-6545
and J1939-6342 were used for primary flux and bandpass calibrations for the Feb 20 and the
Aug 14 data, respectively; J0025-2602 was used as secondary calibrator in both observing
sessions. To enable study of the HI spectral line, a narrow (20 MHz) bandpass, centered on
the recessional velocity of Haro 11 derived from optical emission lines2, was extracted from
the full dataset. The 26.123 kHz channel width produces a native velocity resolution of 5.5
km/s/ch. Data reduction and calibration followed standard prescriptions in the CASA 5.6
environment3. Imaging was performed with CASA 6.4 using the AUTO-MULTITHRESH
algorithm4 within the CASA TCLEAN task at three different angular resolutions by using
tapering in the uv-plane. The velocity resolution was set to 10 km/s. The masks generated by
AUTO-MULTITHRESH were examined by hand, and deep cleaning (to the level of 0.5 σ)
was performed inside regions that contain real flux. The final datacubes have beam sizes and
rms noise values as follows: 47.3” ×45.7” and σ = 0.18 mJy/beam (hereafter, “low
resolution”, produced using a 2.5kλ uv-taper); 24.6” ×21.7” and σ = 0.16 mJy/beam
(hereafter, “medium resolution”, produced using a 7k uv-taper); 11.2” ×9.7” and σ = 0.17
mJy/beam (hereafter, “high resolution”, produced with no uv-taper).

21cm detection
To detect 21cm signal in the cubes, we used the dedicated 21cm detection software Source
FInding Algorithm5 (SoFIA, version 1.3.3). We used the Smooth+Clip algorithm with 4.5σ
threshold using the Median absolute Deviation rms mode in order to include HI absorption in
the mask. We used spatial smoothing with Gaussian kernels and spectral smoothing boxcar
kernels (with either no smoothing or 3-channel wide (~30km/s) smoothing). For each of the
datasets, we applied kernels with no smoothing, 10” smoothing (average beam size of the
high resolution dataset), 23” smoothing (average beam size of the intermediate resolution
dataset) and 46” smoothing (average beam size of the low resolution dataset). A reliability
threshold is often used to increase completeness and reliability of the detections, however
since this method relies on statistics on negative pixels and our cube presents prominent
absorption, we did not use it. Eye inspection of the masked cubes confirmed that the 21cm
detection parameters enabled the recovery of all the HI emission and absorption.

HI Mass estimation
To estimate the gas mass associated with the 21cm emission, we use the high angular
resolution cube which best resolves the absorption in the cube, that allows us to separate the
emission and absorption components. To estimate the gas mass associated with 21cm
emission-only, we mask the absorption component from the cube. We fit a double Gaussian
function to the emission profile using least-square fitting weighted by errors. We integrate
over the fitted profile and find a flux value SHI,em =0.391 ± 0.042 Jy. km/s, taking into
account a conservative flux calibrator error of 10%, the pixel variance in the cube and the
uncertainty on fitting parameters. To determine the emitting gas mass, we assume that the gas
is optically thin and use MHI = 2.36 × 10, D2 [Mpc] SHI [Jy.km/s]. We find an HI gas mass
MHI,em =7.99 ± 0.85 × 10# M⊙ for the 21cm emission component.

Estimating the gas mass associated with 21cm absorption yields more uncertainties, due to
the unknown size of the absorbing component, spin temperature and covering fraction.
The column density NHI of the absorbing gas can be written as a function of the spin
temperature Ts and the optical depth 𝜏(𝑣) as NHI [cm-2 ] = 1.823 ×

10+# Ts [K] ∫. 𝜏(𝑣) d𝑣 [km/s]. The optical depth can be expressed as a function of the
observed change in flux density due to the absorption ΔS, the continuum flux density Sc and
the covering fraction of the absorbing gas 𝑓 as 𝜏(𝑣) = − ln(1 + ΔS(𝑣)/(𝑓 Sc )). Finally, the
absorbing gas mass calculation requires an assumption on the volume covered by the gas. We
express it as a function of the area covered by the gas 𝐴/01 , the column density, the mass of
the Hydrogen atom 𝑚2 and assume the same volume filling factor of 𝑓 3/! as in previous
21cm absorption study6, such that MHI,abs = NHI,abs 𝐴/01 𝑚2 𝑓 3/! .
The radio continuum images and previous VLA absorption study indicate that the radio
emission is produced by an unresolved source, and the distribution of the gas within the area
is unknown. Thus, we use the beam size (7.27” ×10.07”) of the previous VLA absorption
observation which reached a better resolution, as an upper limit to the area covered by the
gas. Observations and modeling6,7 of the ISM in Haro 11 suggests that the spin temperature is
found within the range 91-200 K. We use values from the measurement of UV absorption
lines of metals which are a proxy for the neutral gas content of galaxies8 to constrain the
covering fraction between f=0.55 and f=0.95. We find that the mass in absorption ranges
from 8.9 × 105 M⊙ to 5.7 × 10# M⊙ . Adding the mass seen in emission to the midpoint of
the absorption mass, we find a total HI gas mass MHI =1.1 ± 0.3 × 10% M⊙ .

HI distribution at the location of the absorption feature

We extract a spectrum from the non-masked cube at the location of the absorption component
to assess the content and kinematic structure of the neutral gas at this location. This also
corresponds to the location of the optical body of the galaxy and of the star-forming knots
producing LyC emission. The spectrum and aperture are shown on Fig. 2. We find that 21cm
emission is seen at the location of the absorption feature. We have shown the velocity range
of the sources emitting the radio continuum emission that is being absorbed, and find that the
peak of the 21cm emission is redshifted by 71±30 km/s, depending on the location
considered for the radio continuum source. HI gas that is located in front of the source
emitting the radio continuum is absorbed, while gas located in the background is emitting
21cm. The respective redshift of the emission and blueshift of the absorption indicate that we
are looking at a neutral gas outflow around the optical body of the galaxy. We fit the
emission component with a Gaussian using least-square fitting weighted by errors and
integrate the Gaussian profile. We find a flux of 0.052±0.053 Jy.km/s in the emission
component cospatial with the absorption, which corresponds to 13% of the 21cm emission
flux of the galaxy. Most of the HI emission is thus found in the tidal tail, away from the star-
forming knots.

HI 21cm morpho-kinematics
Channel maps of the 21cm of Haro 11 are shown for the high-resolution, intermediate-
resolution and low-resolution cubes in Fig. 6, 7 and 8. The emission is connected (both
spatially and spectrally) and is offset from the center of the galaxy, indicating that it traces a
tidal tail.

Archival VLA continuum data reduction

The VLA continuum data was taken by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Karl G.
Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) as part of project VLA/15B-197 (PI: Kepley). The
observing frequencies and parameters are given in Table 1. For all three bands, the strategy
was to observe a flux/bandpass calibrator once during each scheduling block and then
to periodically observe a phase calibrator. Additionally for the X and Ka-band data, a
pointing scan was run at the beginning of a scheduling block. The data were calibrated using
VLA pipeline version Pipeline-Cycle3-R1-B with CASA version 4.3.1 r32491 and imaged in
CASA 6.2.1-7, using multi-term, multi-frequency synthesis9 with nterms=2 to account for the
spectral curvature of the data and Briggs robust weighting of 0.5. In addition, the S-band data
used w-projection to correct for the curvature of the sky over the larger field of view. We
used self-calibration to improve the image dynamic range for all three bands. All three
datasets had a phase self-cal performed. The Ka-band data had an additional scan-length
amplitude self-cal. The final images were primary beam corrected accounting for the
variation of the primary beam as a function of frequency across the band.

Haro 11 radio continuum emission

We present the VLA radio continuum images of Haro 11 in Fig. 3. The radio continuum flux
density of Haro 11 was calculated in the VLA archival images at 3GHz, 9.8 GHz and 33 GHz
using the lowest contour corresponding to the 3σ level. This was supplemented by values
taken from the literature6,10. The flux density values for Haro 11 are presented in Table 2. We
also extract the flux density in Knot B only in the VLA archival images. To do so, we fit a
2D Gaussian using the CASA task IMFIT, fixing the value of the peak and allowing for a
zero-point offset. The flux density values of Knot B only are presented in Table 3. The error
values are calculated using a conservative flux calibrator error of 10 %, which drives the
uncertainty. We show the extraction regions used for the full galaxy and Knot B on Fig. 5,
along with the radio continuum SED. The flux values agree with Knot B being the location
of the highest radio continuum emission region, but the continuum emission in Knot B is
unresolved, even with Ka-band imaging. We compare the location of the Knot B radio
continuum emission with the optical image of Haro 11 in Fig. 4. The radio spectral energy
distributions (SED) of Haro 11 and the individual components is presented on Fig. 5.

We fit the radio SED of Haro 11 using a combination of thermal and non-thermal radiation:
S(𝜈) = 𝑆678 + 𝑆78 = 𝑐+ 𝜈 '9 + 𝑐! 𝜈 '".+ . We use a least-square fitting approach weighted by
errors and find the following parameters: 𝑐+ = 29.9 ± 4.5 mJy, α =0.6 ± 0.27, 𝑐! = 2.8 ±
5.3 mJy. The non-thermal spectral slope is consistent with radio emission from star-forming
regions11. We fit the SED of Knot B with non-thermal radiation only, given the number of
points is insufficient for a combined fit, and will lead to overfitting. We find the following
parameters minimize the chi-square: 𝑐+ = 26.3 ± 5.1 mJy, α =0.5 ±0.1 mJy. The flatter
spectral index of Knot B is consistent within errors with that of the galaxy.

Methods references
1. Planck Collaboration, Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters. Astronomy &
Astrophysics 641, A6 (2020).
2. Bergvall, N., Masegosa, J., Östlin, G. and Cernicharo, J. LWS spectroscopy of the
luminous blue compact galaxy Haro 11. Astronomy & Astrophysics 359, 41-50 (2000).
3. McMullin, J.P., Waters, B., Schiebel, D., et al. CASA Architecture and Applications.
Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVI ASP Conference Series 376, 127
(2007).
4. Kepley, A., Tsutsumi, T., Brogan, C. et al. Auto-multithresh: A General Purpose
Automasking Algorithm. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 132, 024595
(2020).
5. Serra, P., Westmeier, T., Giese, N., et al. SOFIA: a flexible source finder for 3D spectral
line data. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 448, 1922-1929 (2015).
6. MacHattie, J., Irwin, J., Madden, S. et al. Detection of H I absorption in the dwarf galaxy
Haro 11. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 438, L66-L70 (2014).
7. Cormier, D., Lebouteiller, V., Madden, S. C., et al. The nature of the interstellar medium
of the starburst low-metallicity galaxy Haro 11: a multi-phase model of the infrared emission.
Astronomy & Astrophysics 548, A20 (2012).
8. Östlin, G., Rivera-Thorsen, T. E., Menacho, V. et al. The Source of Leaking Ionizing
Photons from Haro11: Clues from HST/COS Spectroscopy of Knots A, B, and C. The
Astrophysical Journal 912, 155 (2021).
9. Rau, U, and Cronwell, T .J. A multi-scale multi-frequency deconvolution algorithm for
synthesis imaging in radio interferometry. Astronomy & Astrophysics 532, A71 (2011).
10. Schmitt, H. R., Calzetti, D., Armus, L. et al. Multiwavelength Star Formation Indicators:
Observations. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 164, 52-80 (2006).
11. Klein, U., Lisenfeld, U., and Verley, S. Radio synchrotron spectra of star-forming
galaxies. Astronomy & Astrophysics 611, A55 (2018).

Acknowledgments
ALR thanks Christian Binggeli, Alba Covelo Paz and Mohammad Javad Shahhoseini for
their contributions to the initial 21cm interferometric observing proposal for Haro 11.
JMC and JLI are supported by NSF/AST-2009894. JMC and SHT acknowledge support from
Macalester College.
MJH is fellow of the Knut & Alice Wallenberg foundation.
AA acknowledges financial support from the Swedish Research Council (VR) under grant
2021-05559.
GÖ acknowledges financial support from the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the
Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA).
The MeerKAT telescope is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory,
which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an agency of the Department of
Science and Innovation.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation
operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities Inc.
This study uses observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory
under programme IDs 094.B-0944(A) and 096.B-0923(A).

Author contributions
ALR designed the MeerKAT 21cm observing proposal of Haro 11, analyzed and interpreted
the data. JMC assisted with technical preparation of the 21cm observing proposal and
reduced and imaged the MeerKAT 21cm data. MJH made major contributions to the
scientific justification of the observing proposal and to the interpretation of the data. JLI
reduced the MeerKAT 21cm data. AAK reduced the VLA continuum data and contributed to
the radio continuum data analysis. JM contributed the HST image of Haro 11. VM reduced
the MUSE data and produced the ionized gas maps. AA, AB and GÖ contributed to the
scientific justification of the 21cm observing proposal and interpretation of the data. TE
designed hydrodynamical simulations of the Haro 11 merger which were used for
interpretation of the 21cm data. GIGJ provided major contributions during the technical
preparation of the 21cm observing proposal. The 21cm observing proposal justification was
partly based on results obtained by SHT with the VLA. All authors contributed to the writing
of the manuscript.

Data Availability
The datasets generated and analysed in the current study will be made publicly available in
the SARAO DataCite repository.

Competing interest declaration

The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.
Extended data

Figure 3: VLA continuum images. From left to right: S-band (3 GHz) continuum image,
X-band (9.8 GHz) continuum image, Ka-band (33 GHz) continuum image. Intensities are
displayed with a logarithmic stretch to highlight the full distribution of the radio continuum
emission. The white contours displayed correspond to the {3,5,10,20,40,80,160} levels. The
synthesized beam is represented by a white ellipse in the bottom left corner.

Figure 4: Radio continuum and optical stellar emission comparison. HST f435W filter
image with VLA continuum emission contours overlaid in pink for the S-band (3GHz), in
orange for the X-band (9.8GHz), and in yellow for the Ka-band (33GHz). The contours for
each band are also presented on Figure 5, and correspond to the Gaussian aperture used to
extract the flux of Knot B. Black crosses indicate the position of the three star-forming knots,
the red cross indicates the position of the 21cm absorption centroid.
Figure 5: Radio spectral energy distribution (SED) and VLA continuum images. The
left panels show the SED for Haro 11 (top) and star-forming knot B only (bottom). For Haro
11, we fit the data using a combination of thermal and non-thermal radiation. The combined
fit is shown in black, the thermal and non-thermal components are shown in gray solid and
dashed lines respectively. For Knot B, we fit the data using the non-thermal emission only
(gray dashed line), since we do not have enough data points to make a combined fit. The right
panels show the VLA archival images with contours used for flux extraction overlaid.
Figure 6: MeerKAT high angular resolution 21cm channel map. Levels displayed
correspond to the -10σ, -3σ, 3σ and 5σ levels, respectively shown in black, gray, light blue
and dark blue. The position of Knot B is indicated by a black cross. The two other knots are
extremely close to Knot B, they have not been represented here to help readability.
Figure 7: MeerKAT intermediate angular resolution 21cm channel map. Levels
displayed correspond to the -10σ, -3σ, 3σ and 5σ levels, respectively shown in black, gray,
light blue and dark blue. The position of Knot B is indicated by a black cross. The two other
knots are extremely close to Knot B, they have not been represented here to help readability.
Figure 8: MeerKAT low angular resolution 21cm channel map. Levels displayed
correspond to the -10σ, -3σ, 3σ and 5σ levels, respectively shown in black, gray, light blue
and dark blue. The position of Knot B is indicated by a black cross. The two other knots are
extremely close to Knot B, they have not been represented here to help readability.

Band S-band X-band Ka-band

Configuration B CnB DnC

Central Frequency (GHz) 3 9.8 33.0

Bandwidth (GHz) 1.75 4.0 7.9

Channel width (MHz) 1 1 1

Number of channels/spectral 128 128 128

window
 Number of spectral windows 16 32 64

Flux/BP calibrator 3C48 3C48 3C48

Phase calibrator J0024- J0012- J0012-3954

4202-S 3954

Phase calibrator cadence 14min 14min 7min

Time on Source (hr) 0.26 0.24 3.1

Observing Dates 2016-05- 2016-05- 2016-01-10, 2016-01-13, 2016-

31 05 01-23, 2016-01-23/24

Beam 5.3" x 3.22" x 2.31" x 1.35"

1.65" 1.51"

Image noise (microJy/beam) 15.6 9.1 6.7

Table 1: Very Large Array radio continuum observation parameters.

[GHz] 1.4 1.48 3 4.89 8.46 9.8 33

S[mJy] 27.0±0.2 27.2±0.9 18.4±1.8 15.1±0.5 10.1±0.2 9.6±1.0 6.4±0.6

Table 2: Radio continuum flux density values.

[GHz] 3 9.8 33

S[mJy] 16.5±1.7 8.0±0.8 5.1±0.5

Table 3: Radio continuum flux density values in Knot B.