@misc{10481/93516,
year = {2024},
month = {6},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/93516},
abstract = {We present a study of the molecular gas in early-mid stage major mergers, with a sample of 43 major-merger
galaxy pairs selected from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory survey and a control sample
of 195 isolated galaxies selected from the xCOLD GASS survey. Adopting kinematic asymmetry as a new
effective indicator to describe the merger stage, we aim to study the role of molecular gas in the merger-induced
star formation enhancement along the merger sequence of galaxy pairs. We obtain the molecular gas properties
from CO observations with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, Institut de Radioastronomie Milimetrique 30 m
telescope, and the MaNGA-ARO Survey of CO Targets survey. Using these data, we investigate the differences in
molecular gas fraction ( fH2), star formation rate (SFR), star formation efficiency (SFE), molecular-to-atomic gas
ratio (MH2/MH I), total gas fraction ( fgas), and the SFE of total gas (SFEgas) between the pair and control samples. In
the full pair sample, our results suggest the fH2 of paired galaxies is significantly enhanced, while the SFE is
comparable to that of isolated galaxies. We detect significantly increased fH2 and MH2/MH I in paired galaxies at the
pericenter stage, indicating an accelerated transition from atomic gas to molecular gas due to interactions. Our
results indicate that the elevation of fH2 plays a major role in the enhancement of global SFR in paired galaxies at
the pericenter stage, while the contribution of enhanced SFE in specific regions requires further explorations
through spatially resolved observations of a larger sample spanning a wide range of merger stages.},
organization = {National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC) under Nos. 11890692, 12133008,
and 12221003},
organization = {China Manned Space Project with No. CMS-CSST-
2021-A04},
organization = {NSFC under
No. 12103017},
organization = {Natural Science Foundation of Hebei
Province (No. A2021205001)},
organization = {NSFC under No. 12373026},
organization = {project PID2020-114414GB-I00
financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033},
organization = {Junta de Andalucía (Spain) grant FQM108},
publisher = {IOP Publishing},
title = {CO Observations of Early-mid Stage Major Mergers in the MaNGA Survey},
doi = {10.3847/1538-4365/ad4547},
author = {Yu, Qingzheng and Fang, Taotao and Xu, Cong Kevin and Feng, Shuai and Feng, Siyi and Gao, Yu and Jiang, Xue-Jian and Lisenfeld, Ute},
}