The Westerbork Coma Survey A blind, deep, high-resolution H I survey of the Coma cluster

We present the blind Westerbork Coma Survey probing the H I content of the Coma galaxy cluster with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. The survey covers the inner similar to 1 Mpc around the cluster centre, extending out to 1.5 Mpc towards the south-western NGC 4839 group. The survey probes the atomic gas in the entire Coma volume down to a sensitivity of similar to 10(19) cm(-2) and 10(8) M-circle dot. Combining automated source finding with source extraction at optical redshifts and visual verification, we obtained 40 H I detections of which 24 are new. Over half of the sample displays perturbed H I morphologies indicative of an ongoing interaction with the cluster environment. With the use of ancillary UV and mid-IR, data we measured their stellar masses and star formation rates and compared the H I properties to a set of field galaxies spanning a similar stellar mass and star formation rate range. We find that similar to 75% of H I-selected Coma galaxies have simultaneously enhanced star formation rates (by similar to 0.2 dex) and are H I deficient (by similar to 0.5 dex) compared to field galaxies of the same stellar mass. According to our toy model, the simultaneous H I deficiency and enhanced star formation activity can be attributed to either H I stripping of already highly star forming galaxies on a very short timescale, while their H-2 content remains largely unaffected, or to H I stripping coupled to a temporary boost of the H I-to-H-2 conversion, causing a brief starburst phase triggered by ram pressure before eventually quenching the galaxy.