Giant Molecular Cloud Properties of WISDOM galaxies - NGC 5806 and NGC 6753

Constraining the structure and thus the fate of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), the primary sites of star formation in galaxies, is crucial to understand the evolution of galaxies themselves. Exploiting the unprecedented sensitivity and angular resolution of the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), we have measured the spatially-resolved (~ 20 pc resolution) properties of the GMCs in two nearby late-type galaxies, NGC 5806 (SAB(s)b) and NGC 6753 ((R)SA(r)b), as part of the WISDOM project. Although these results are preliminary, we identified ~ 200 resolved GMCs in NGC 5806 within a radius of 500 pc, most within a nuclear ring structure, and ~ 400 resolved GMCs in NGC 6753 within a radius of 2 kpc, most within a flocculent spiral structure. The GMCs of NGC 5806 have similar sizes but slightly higher linewidths than clouds in the Milky Way disc. Because the GMCs also have higher surface densities, the calculated cloud Virial parameters are nevertheless about unity, suggesting that the GMCs of NGC 5806 are in gravitational equilibrium and thus long lived. This is contrary to other WISDOM results on earlier-type galaxies, where large cloud linewidths are likely due to shear associated with the local (circular) orbital motions (rather than the clouds' self-gravity), and the clouds are either marginally or not gravitationally bound. These results support the notion that spheroids alter the dynamical states of clouds (morphological quenching), that are otherwise (i.e. in galaxy discs) fairly homogenous and similar to those of the Milky Way.