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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2006
Formation of GMCs is one of the most crucial issues in galaxy evolution. I will compare CO and HI in the LMC in 3 dimensional space for the first time aiming at revealing the physical connection between GMCs and associated HI gas at a ~40 pc scale. The present major findings are 1) [total CO intensity] ∝ [total HI intensity]0.8 for the 110 GMCs, and 2) the HI intensity tends to increase with the evolution of GMCs. I argue that these findings are consistent with the growth of GMCs via HI accretion over a time scale of a few × 10 Myrs. I will also discuss the role of the background stellar gravity and the dynamical compression by supershells in formation of GMCs.