Molecular gas in nearby powerful radio galaxies

We report the detection of (CO)-C-12(1 --> 0) and (CO)-C-12 (2 --> 1) emission from the central region of nearby 3CR radio galaxies (z< 0.03). Out of 21 galaxies, 8 have been detected in, at least, one of the two CO transitions. The total molecular gas content is below 10(9) M-circle dot. Their individual 00 emission exhibit, for 5 cases, 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 is consistent with the observed presence of dust disks or rings detected optically in the cores of the 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 these galaxies must have merged a long time ago (few Gyr or more) but their remnant elliptical galaxies only recently (last 10(7) years or less) become active radio galaxies. Instead, we argue that the cannibalism of gas-rich galaxies provide a simpler explanation for the origin of molecular gas in the elliptical hosts of radio galaxies (Lim et al. 2000). 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.