Molecular gas properties of 70 PHANGS-ALMA galaxies

This yields the best synthetic view of molecular gas properties on cloud scales across the local star-forming galaxy population obtained to date. Consistent with previous studies, we observe a wide range of molecular gas surface densities (3.4dex), velocity dispersions (1.7dex), and turbulent pressures (6.5dex) across the galaxies in our sample.

Under simplifying assumptions about subresolution gas structure, the inferred virial parameters suggest that the kinetic energy of the molecular gas typically exceeds its self-gravitational binding energy at ~100pc scales by a modest factor (1.3 on average). We find that the cloud-scale surface density, velocity dispersion, and turbulent pressure (1) increase toward the inner parts of galaxies, (2) are exceptionally high in the centers of barred galaxies (where the gas also appears less gravitationally bound), and (3) are moderately higher in spiral arms than in inter-arm regions.