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arXiv · 2510.16441

CO in MASsive Spirals (CO-MASS): an IRAM 30m CO emission line survey of the CGM-MASS sample

Yu Huang·Jiangtao Li·Yan Jiang·Ping Zhou·Jianghui Xu·Liyuan Lu·Yang Yang
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Abstract

There exist extremely massive spiral galaxies in isolated environments, with stellar masses several times that of the Milky Way, yet their star formation rates (SFRs) are comparable to or even lower than that of the Milky Way. In this paper, we investigate the molecular gas properties of such galaxies to better understand the origin of their low SFRs. We present IRAM 30m CO observations of five extremely massive spirals from the CGM-MASS sample. We compare their star formation efficiencies (SFEs) with the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation and find that these massive spirals generally exhibit low efficiency in converting molecular gas into stars. We further compare their molecular gas masses with their atomic gas and stellar masses, and also include the CHANG-ES sample galaxies observed with the IRAM 30m telescope in a similar manner for comparison. Our sample galaxies show low efficiency in converting atomic to molecular gas and have lower molecular gas fractions, suggesting that their suppressed star formation stems from both limited gas supply and inefficient star formation. Considering potential cold gas sources in massive spirals, we argue that their current reservoirs likely originate from past starburst or merger events rather than ongoing accretion in present isolated environments. Finally, we examine the location of these galaxies on the baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, finding them baryon-deficient and deviating from the trend of lower-mass galaxies. This suggests either a significant undetected baryonic component or a flattening/turnover of the relation at the high-mass end, consistent with the stellar mass-halo mass relation.

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Yu Huang, Jiangtao Li, Yan Jiang, Ping Zhou, Jianghui Xu, Liyuan Lu, Yang Yang. 2025-10-18. CO in MASsive Spirals (CO-MASS): an IRAM 30m CO emission line survey of the CGM-MASS sample. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.16441

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