A millimeter-wave survey of CO emission in Seyfert galaxies

Emission in the 115 GHz 1-0 line of CO has been detected in 18 Seyfert galaxies in a sample of 43. The CO properties of 29 Seyferts in the Revised Shapley Ames Catalog (RSA) are compared with the CO properties of normal galaxies of the same Hubble type. These RSA type 2 Seyferts have an average ratio of CO-to-blue luminosity that is about twice as large as that of the normal galaxies, but the RSA type 1 Seyferts have normal CO luminosities. The RSA type 2 Seyfert galaxies have an unusually large average ratio of CO luminosity-to-H I mass compared to normal disk galaxies. The RSA type 2 Seyferts have an average far-IR luminosity that is about four times larger than a non-Seyfert comparison sample, while the RSA type 1 Seyferts are not significantly more luminous than the non-Seyferts. The result imply that the two classes of Seyferts are intrinsically different from one another and that one class cannot evolve into another in less than a few million years.