Maps and radial profiles. Upper panels: Velocity-integrated intensity maps derived from the 2.1 μm line for three representative targets selected from the galaxies of L_X bin 1 (NGC 7582; (a)), bin 2 (NGC 1068; (b)), and bin 3 (NGC 6300; (c)), as defined in Sect. 6.1. Contour levels have a logarithmic spacing from 2.5σ to 90% of the peak 2.1 μm intensity inside the displayed field of view, which corresponds to 400 pc × 400 pc. Lower panels: Normalized radial distributions of ‘hot’ molecular gas derived out to r = 210 pc for the galaxies shown in the upper panels. The estimated ‘hot’ molecular gas concentration indices are displayed in panels (d)-to-(f). All symbols as in Fig. 5.