VERTICO II: How H i-identified Environmental Mechanisms Affect the Molecular Gas in Cluster Galaxies
Nikki Zabel, Toby Brown, C. D. Wilson, Timothy A. Davis, L. Cortese, Laura C. Parker, A. Boselli, Barbara Catinella, Ryan Chown, Aeree Chung, Tirna Deb, Sara L. Ellison, María J. Jiménez-Donaire, Bumhyun Lee, Ian Roberts, Kristine Spekkens, Adam R. H. Stevens, Mallory Thorp, Stephanie Tonnesen, Vicente Villanueva
Abstract
Abstract In this VERTICO early science paper we explore in detail how environmental mechanisms, identified in H i , affect the resolved properties of molecular gas reservoirs in cluster galaxies. The molecular gas is probed using ALMA ACA (+TP) observations of 12 CO(2–1) in 51 spiral galaxies in the Virgo cluster (of which 49 are detected), all of which are included in the VIVA H i survey. The sample spans a stellar mass range of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mn>9</mml:mn> <mml:mo>≤</mml:mo> <mml:mi>log</mml:mi> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⋆</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="true">/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⊙</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>≤</mml:mo> <mml:mn>11</mml:mn> </mml:math> . We study molecular gas radial profiles, isodensity radii, and surface densities as a function of galaxy H i deficiency and morphology. There is a weak correlation between global H i and H 2 deficiencies, and resolved properties of molecular gas correlate with H i deficiency: galaxies that have large H i deficiencies have relatively steep and truncated molecular gas radial profiles, which is due to the removal of low-surface-density molecular gas on the outskirts. Therefore, while the environmental mechanisms observed in H i also affect molecular gas reservoirs, there is only a moderate reduction of the total amount of molecular gas.