HIGH RESOLUTION OBSERVATIONS OF MOLECULAR GAS DISTRIBUTION IN GALAXIES

Recent high resolution CO observations of normal and starburst galaxies at Owens Valley Millimeter Array are summarized. While normal disk galaxies generally show exponential distribution which follows the optical blue light, starburst galaxies are often characterized by a compact ($\~$1 kpc) nuclear complex whose surface gas mass density is strongly correlated with the observed large infrared luminosity and thus the ongoing massive star formation.