Molecular Gas in the Powerful Radio Galaxies 3C 31 and 3C 264: Major or Minor Mergers?

We report the detection of 12CO (1 → 0) and 12CO (2 → 1) emission from the central regions (≲5-10 kpc) of the two powerful radio galaxies 3C 31 and 3C 264. Their individual CO emission exhibits a double-horned line profile that is characteristic of an inclined rotating disk with a central depression at the rising part of its rotation curve. The inferred disk or ring distributions of the molecular gas are consistent with the observed presence of dust disks or rings detected optically in the cores of both galaxies. For a CO-to-H2 conversion factor similar to that of our Galaxy, the corresponding total mass in molecular hydrogen gas is (1.3 ± 0.2) × 109 M☉ in 3C 31 and (0.31 ± 0.06) × 109 M☉ in 3C 264. Despite their relatively large molecular gas masses and other peculiarities, both 3C 31 and 3C 264, as well as many other powerful radio galaxies in the (revised) 3C catalog, are known to lie within the fundamental plane of normal elliptical galaxies. We reason that if their gas originates from the mergers of two gas-rich disk galaxies, as has been invoked to explain the molecular gas in other radio galaxies, then both 3C 31 and 3C 264 must have merged a long time (a few billion years or more) ago, but their remnant elliptical galaxies have only recently (last tens of millions of years or less) become active in radio. Instead, we argue that the cannibalism of gas-rich galaxies provides a simpler explanation for the origin of molecular gas in the elliptical hosts of radio galaxies. Given the transient nature of their observed disturbances, these galaxies probably become active in radio soon after the accretion event, when sufficient molecular gas agglomerates in their nuclei.