Cold gas in massive early-type galaxies: The case of NGC 1167
  We present a study of the morphology and kinematics of the neutral hydrogen
in the gas-rich (M_HI=1.5x10^{10}Msun), massive early-type galaxy NGC 1167,
which was observed with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). The HI
is located in a 160kpc disk (~3xD_25) and has low surface density (<2Msun
pc^{-2}). The disk shows regular rotation for r<65kpc but several signs of
recent and ongoing interaction and merging with fairly massive companions are
observed. No population of cold gas clouds is observed - in contrast to what is
found in some spiral galaxies. This suggests that currently the main mechanism
bringing in cold gas to the disk is the accretion of fairly massive satellite
galaxies, rather than the accretion of a large number of small gas clumps. NGC
1167 is located in a (gas-) rich environment: we detect eight companions with a
total HI mass of ~6x10^9Msun within a projected distance of 350kpc. Deep
optical images show a disrupted satellite at the northern edge of the HI disk.
The observed rotation curve shows a prominent bump of about 50km/s (in the
plane of the disk) at r=1.3xR_25. This feature in the rotation curve occurs at
the radius where the HI surface density drops significantly and may be due to
large-scale streaming motions in the disk. We suspect that both the streaming
motions and the HI density distribution are the result of the
interaction/accretion with the disrupted satellite. Like in other galaxies with
wiggles and bumps in the rotation curve, HI scaling describes the observed
rotation curve best. We suggest that interactions create streaming motions and
features in the HI density distribution and that this is the reason for the
success of HI scaling in fitting such rotation curves.
