VERTICO II: How H i-identified Environmental Mechanisms Affect the Molecular Gas in Cluster Galaxies

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.