Ueda, J., Iono, D., Yun, M., Wilner, D., Narayanan, D., Hatsukade, B., Tamura, Y., Kaneko, H., Crocker, A., Espada, D., and Kawabe, R. 2013. "Reformation of Cold Molecular Disks in Merger Remnants." from Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series. 476, 61.
We present observational evidence for forming a molecular gas disk in merging galaxies using new and archival interferometric CO maps of 37 optically selected merger remnants in the local universe. We found that 65% (24/37) of the merger remnants sample shows kinematical signatures of a rotating disk in the interferometer maps. The sources with an extended CO disk have high FIR luminosities (˜ 1011 L⊙), which suggests that active star formation takes place in the extended CO disks and stellar disks will be possibly formed. The molecular gas-to-stellar mass ratio for merger remnants is larger than that of the stellar mass matched early-type galaxies. However, there is no significant evidence suggesting that the high gas mass ratio leads to a more efficient formation of a molecular gas disk.
