The Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey (GATOS) I. ALMA images of
  dusty molecular tori in Seyfert galaxies
  We present the first results of the Galaxy Activity, Torus and Outflow Survey
(GATOS), a project aimed at understanding the properties of the dusty molecular
tori and their connection to the host galaxy in nearby Seyfert galaxies. Our
project expands the range of AGN luminosities and Eddington ratios covered by
previous surveys of Seyferts conducted by ALMA and allows us to study the gas
feeding and feedback cycle in a combined sample of 19 Seyferts. We used ALMA to
obtain new images of the emission of molecular gas and dust using the CO(3-2)
and HCO+(4-3) lines as well as their underlying continuum emission at 870
microns with high spatial resolutions (0.1'' ~ 7 - 13 pc) in the CND of 10
nearby (D < 28 Mpc) Seyfert galaxies. Our new ALMA observations detect 870
micron continuum and CO line emission from spatially resolved disks located
around the AGN in all the sources. The bulk of the continuum flux can be
accounted for by thermal emission from dust in the majority of the targets. For
most of the sources the disks show a preponderant orientation perpendicular to
the AGN wind axes, as expected for dusty molecular tori. The median diameters
and molecular gas masses of the tori are ~ 42 pc, and ~ 6 x 10**5 Msun,
respectively. We find a positive correlation between the line-of-sight gas
column densities responsible for the absorption of X-rays and the molecular gas
column densities derived from CO towards the AGN in our sources. The radial
distributions of molecular gas in the CND of our combined sample show signs of
nuclear-scale molecular gas deficits. We also detect molecular outflows in the
sources that show the most extreme nuclear-scale gas deficits in our sample.
These observations find for the first time supporting evidence that the imprint
of AGN feedback is more extreme in higher luminosity and/or higher Eddington
ratio Seyfert galaxies.
