Molecular gas properties of galaxies: The SMA CO(2-1) B0DEGA legacy
  project
  In the last two decades high resolution (< 5 arcsec) CO observations for ~
150 galaxies have provided a wealth of information about the molecular gas
morphologies in the circumnuclear regions. While in samples of 'normal'
galaxies the molecular gas does not seem to peak toward the nuclear regions for
about 50% of the galaxies, barred galaxies and mergers show larger
concentrations. However, we do not exactly know from an observational point of
view how the molecular gas properties of a galaxy evolve as a result of an
interaction. Here we present the SMA CO(2-1) B0DEGA (Below 0 DEgree GAlaxies)
legacy project in which we are imaging the CO(2-1) line of the circumnuclear
regions (1 arcmin) of a large (~ 70) sample of nearby IR-bright spiral
galaxies, likely interacting, and that still remained unexplored due to its
location in the southern hemisphere. We find different molecular gas
morphologies, such as rings, nuclear arms, nuclear bars and asymmetries. We
find a centrally peaked concentration in about 85% of the galaxies with typical
size scales of about 0.5 - 1 kpc. This might be related to perturbations
produced by recent interactions.
