Escape, Accretion or Star Formation? The Competing Depleters of Gas in
  the Quasar Markarian 231
  We report on high resolution CO(1-0), CS(2-1) and 3mm continuum Combined
Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy (CARMA) observations of the
molecular outflow host and nearest quasar Markarian 231. We use the CS(2-1)
measurements to derive a dense gas mass within Mrk231 of
$1.8\pm0.3\times10^{10}~M_\odot$, consistent with previous measurements. The
CS(2-1) data also seem to indicate that the molecular disk of Mrk231 is forming
stars at about normal efficiency. The high resolution CARMA observations were
able to resolve the CO(1-0) outflow into two distinct lobes, allowing for a
size estimate to be made and further constraining the molecular outflow
dynamical time, further constraining the molecular gas escape rate. We find
that 15% of the molecular gas within the Mrk231 outflow actually exceeds the
escape velocity in the central kiloparsec. Assuming that molecular gas is not
constantly being accelerated, we find the depletion timescale of molecular gas
in Mrk231 to be 49Myr, rather than 32Myr, more consistent with the
poststarburst stellar population observed in the system.
