Molecular gas in nearest LIRG denser and more turbulent than local disks

We present the molecular gas properties in the merging pair of galaxies NGC 3256 as observed with
ALMA in CO J=2-1 at a resolution of ∼0.2” (43 pc). NGC 3256 is the closest luminous infrared galaxy
at 44 Mpc with a bolometric luminosity of 4 x 10 11 Lsun making it an ideal target for a giant molecular
cloud (GMC) scale study of a massive starburst system. In addition to enhanced star formation, this sys-
tem boasts additional extreme environments such as outflows and possible inflows which can contribute
to variations in GMC dynamics. We present both a “blind” pixel-by-pixel characterization of the gas
kinematics and density as well as a giant molecular cloud catalogue with derived sizes, line widths, and
luminosities. We compare these to the molecular gas properties in both “normal” disk galaxies and other
starbursting galaxies