Prevalence of neutral gas in centres of merging galaxies-II: nuclear HI and multi-wavelength properties

Using a sample of 38 radio-loud galaxy mergers at z =3-sigma level) correlation with galaxy properties, we find that the incidence and N(HI) of absorption tend to be slightly higher at smaller projected separations between the galaxy pairs and among the lower stellar mass-radio galaxies. The incidence, N(HI) and line width of HI absorption increase from the pre-merger to the post-merger stages. The 100% detection rate in post-mergers indicates that the neutral gas in the circumnuclear regions survives the coalescence period and is not yet quenched by the nuclear radio activity.