Global molecular gas properties of Seyfert galaxies I. The observational data

In this paper we present large-scale maps of the J = 1 --> 0 transitions of CO and HCN in a sample of 7 near-by Seyfert galaxies. These are the first large-scale maps of CO in NGCs 2273 and 5033 and of HCN in all of the sample. From the maps we tabulate the integrated intensities at various extents and calculate the corresponding luminosities. The CO luminosities are compared with those of Young et al. (1995). It is our intention to use these results in conjunction with those of a distant Seyfert sample, in Paper II (Curran et al. 2001a), in order to analyse the differences in molecular gas luminosities and distributions, not only between the full sample and other galaxy types, but between the near-by and distant samples. Immediately, from the observational data we see that the HCN is distributed beyond the central beam (similar to1 kpc) in much of the sample. We consider this to be an important result which we will discuss further in Paper II.