The PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS): Environmental Dependence of
  Giant Molecular Cloud Properties in M51
  Using data from the PdBI Arcsecond Whirlpool Survey (PAWS), we have generated
the largest extragalactic Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) catalog to date,
containing 1,507 individual objects. GMCs in the inner M51 disk account for
only 54% of the total 12CO(1-0) luminosity of the survey, but on average they
exhibit physical properties similar to Galactic GMCs. We do not find a strong
correlation between the GMC size and velocity dispersion, and a simple virial
analysis suggests that 30% of GMCs in M51 are unbound. We have analyzed the GMC
properties within seven dynamically-motivated galactic environments, finding
that GMCs in the spiral arms and in the central region are brighter and have
higher velocity dispersions than inter-arm clouds. Globally, the GMC mass
distribution does not follow a simple power law shape. Instead, we find that
the shape of the mass distribution varies with galactic environment: the
distribution is steeper in inter-arm region than in the spiral arms, and
exhibits a sharp truncation at high masses for the nuclear bar region. We
propose that the observed environmental variations in the GMC properties and
mass distributions are a consequence of the combined action of large-scale
dynamical processes and feedback from high mass star formation. We describe
some challenges of using existing GMC identification techniques for decomposing
the 12CO(1-0) emission in molecule-rich environments, such as M51's inner disk.
