This paper reports the latest results from a millimeter-wave (CO)
spectroscopic survey of IRAS-detected radio galaxies with L_1.4GHz ~ 10^23-28
W/Hz in the redshift range z ~ 0.02-0.15. The IRAS flux-limited sample contains
33 radio galaxies with different radio morphologies and a broad range of
infrared luminosities L_IR = 10^9-12 L_sun), allowing for an investigation of
(a) whether low-z radio-selected AGN reside in molecular gas-rich host galaxes,
and (b) whether the CO properties are correlated with the properties of the
host galaxy or the AGN. All of the radio galaxies in Mazzarella et al. (1993)
and Mirabel et al. (1989) have been reobserved. Three new CO detections have
been made, raising the total number of CO detections to nine and setting the
survey detection rate at ~ 25%. Many of the CO lines have double-peaked
profiles, and the CO line widths are broad (average Delta v_FWHM ~ 500+/-130
km/s), exceeding the average CO widths of both ultraluminous infrared galaxies
(300+/-90 km/s) and Palomar-Green QSOs (260+/-160 km/s), and thus being
indicative of massive host galaxies. The CO luminosities translate into
molecular gas masses of ~ 0.4-7x10^9 M_sun, however, the 3-sigma CO upper
limits for nondetections do not rule out a molecular gas mass as high as that
of the Milky Way (~ 3x10^9 M_sun). Optical images of eight out of nine
molecular gas-rich radio galaxies show evidence of close companions and/or
tidal features. Finally, there is no obvious correlation between radio power
and molecular gas mass. However, it is notable that only one F-R II galaxy out
of 12 is detected in this CO survey; the remaining detections are of galaxies
hosting F-R I and compact radio jets.Comment: LaTex, 33 pages, including 1 jpg figure and 14 postscript figures,
ApJS, in press (August 2005