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Aims. We present new IRAM Plateau de Bure Interferometer observations of Arp 220 in HCN, HCO$^{+}$, HN$^{13}$C J=1-0, C$_{2}$H N=1-0, SiO J = 2-1, HNCO J$_{k,k}$ = 5$_{0,4}$ - 4$_{0,4}$, CH$_{3}$CN(6-5), CS J=2-1 and 5-4 and $^{13}$CO J=1-0 and 2-1 and of NGC 6240 in HCN, HCO$^{+}$ J = 1-0 and C$_{2}$H N = 1-0. In addition, we present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillmeter Array science verification observations of Arp 220 in CS J = 4-3 and CH$_{3}$CN(10-9). Various lines are used to analyse the physical conditions of the molecular gas including the [$^{12}$CO]/[$^{13}$CO] and [$^{12}$CO]/[C$^{18}$O] abundance ratios. These observations will be made available to the public. Methods. We create brightness temperature line ratio maps to present the different physical conditions across Arp 220 and NGC 6240. In addition, we use the radiative transfer code RADEX and a Monte Carlo Markov Chain likelihood code to model the $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O lines of Arp 220 at ~2 (~700 pc) scales, where the $^{12}$CO and C$^{18}$O measurements were obtained from literature. Results. Line ratios of optically thick lines such as $^{12}$CO show smoothly varying ratios while the line ratios of optically thin lines such as $^{13}$CO show a east-west gradient across Arp 220. The HCN/HCO$^{+}$ line ratio differs between Arp 220 and NGC 6240, where Arp 220 has line ratios above 2 and NGC 6240 below 1. The radiative transfer analysis solution is consistent with a warm (~40 K), moderately dense (~10$^{3.4}$ cm$^{-3}$) molecular gas component averaged over the two nuclei. We find [$^{12}$CO]/[$^{13}$CO] and [$^{12}$CO]/[C$^{18}$O] abundance ratios of ~90 for both. The abundance enhancement of C$^{18}$O can be explained by stellar nucleosynthesis enrichment of the interstellar medium.
We report ALMA Band 7 (350 GHz) imaging at 0.4 - 0.6arcsec resolution and Band 9 (696 GHz) at ~0.25arcsec resolution of the luminous IR galaxies Arp 220 and NGC 6240. The long wavelength dust continuum is used to estimate ISM masses for Arp 220 East, West and NGC 6240 of 1.9, 4.2 and 1.6x10^9 msun within radii of 69, 65 and 190 pc. The HCN emission was modeled to derive the emissivity distribution as a function of radius and the kinematics of each nuclear disk, yielding dynamical masses consistent with the masses and sizes derived from the dust emission. In Arp 220, the major dust and gas concentrations are at radii less than 50 pc in both counter-rotating nuclear disks. The thickness of the disks in Arp 220estimated from the velocity dispersion and rotation velocities are 10-20 pc and the mean gas densities are n_H2 ~10^5 cm^-3 at R < 50 pc. We develop an analytic treatment for the molecular excitation (including photon trapping), yielding volume densities for both the HCN and CS emission with n_H2 ~2x10^5 cm^-3. The agreement of the mean density from the total mass and size with that required for excitation suggests that the volume is essentially filled with dense gas, i.e. it is not cloudy or like swiss cheese.
We present the first observations of H$^{13}$CN$(1-0)$, H$^{13}$CO$^+(1-0)$ and SiO$(2-1)$ in NGC,6240, obtained with the IRAM PdBI. Combining a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) code with Large Velocity Gradient (LVG) modelling, and with additional data from the literature, we simultaneously fit three gas phases and six molecular species to constrain the physical condition of the molecular gas, including mass$-$luminosity conversion factors. We find $sim10^{10}M_odot$ of dense molecular gas in cold, dense clouds ($T_{rm k}sim10$,K, $n_{{rm H}_2}sim10^6$,cm$^{-3}$) with a volume filling factor $<0.002$, embedded in a shock heated molecular medium ($T_{rm k}sim2000$,K, $n_{{rm H}_2}sim10^{3.6}$,cm$^{-3}$), both surrounded by an extended diffuse phase ($T_{rm k}sim200$,K, $n_{{rm H}_2}sim10^{2.5}$,cm$^{-3}$). We derive a global $alpha_{rm CO}=1.5^{7.1}_{1.1}$ with gas masses $log_{10}left(M / [M_odot]right)=10.1_{10.0}^{10.8}$, dominated by the dense gas. We also find $alpha_{rm HCN} = 32^{89}_{13}$, which traces the cold, dense gas. The [$^{12}$C]/[$^{13}$C] ratio is only slightly elevated ($98^{230}_{65}$), contrary to the very high [CO]/[$^{13}$CO] ratio (300-500) reported in the literature. However, we find very high [HCN]/[H$^{13}$CN] and [HCO$^+$]/[H$^{13}$CO$^+$] abundance ratios $(300^{500}_{200})$ which we attribute to isotope fractionation in the cold, dense clouds.
We present the results of interferometric spectral line observations of Arp 220 at 3.5mm and 1.2mm from the Plateau de Bure Interferometer (PdBI), imaging the two nuclear disks in H$^{13}$CN$(1 - 0)$ and $(3 - 2)$, H$^{13}$CO$^+(1 - 0)$ and $(3 - 2)$, and HN$^{13}$C$(3 - 2)$ as well as SiO$(2 - 1)$ and $(6 - 5)$, HC$^{15}$N$(3 - 2)$, and SO$(6_6 - 5_5)$. The gas traced by SiO$(6 - 5)$ has a complex and extended kinematic signature including a prominent P Cygni profile, almost identical to previous observations of HCO$^+(3 - 2)$. Spatial offsets $0.1$ north and south of the continuum centre in the emission and absorption of the SiO$(6 - 5)$ P Cygni profile in the western nucleus (WN) imply a bipolar outflow, delineating the northern and southern edges of its disk and suggesting a disk radius of $sim40$ pc, consistent with that found by ALMA observations of Arp 220. We address the blending of SiO$(6 - 5)$ and H$^{13}$CO$^+(3 - 2)$ by considering two limiting cases with regards to the H$^{13}$CO$^+$ emission throughout our analysis. Large velocity gradient (LVG) modelling is used to constrain the physical conditions of the gas and to infer abundance ratios in the two nuclei. Our most conservative lower limit on the [H$^{13}$CN]/[H$^{13}$CO$^+$] abundance ratio is 11 in the WN, cf. 0.10 in the eastern nucleus (EN). Comparing these ratios to the literature we argue on chemical grounds for an energetically significant AGN in the WN driving either X-ray or shock chemistry, and a dominant starburst in the EN.
We used the SPIRE/FTS instrument aboard the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO) to obtain the Spectral Line Energy Distributions (SLEDs) of CO from J=4-3 to J=13-12 of Arp 193 and NGC 6240, two classical merger/starbursts selected from our molecular line survey of local Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs: L_{IR}>=10^{11} L_{sol}). The high-J CO SLEDs are then combined with ground-based low-J CO, {13}CO, HCN, HCO+, CS line data and used to probe the thermal and dynamical states of their large molecular gas reservoirs. We find the two CO SLEDs strongly diverging from J=4-3 onwards, with NGC6240 having a much higher CO line excitation than Arp193, despite their similar low-J CO SLEDs and L_{FIR}/L_{CO,1-0}, L_{HCN}/L_{CO} (J=1-0) ratios (proxies of star formation efficiency and dense gas mass fraction). In Arp193, one of the three most extreme starbursts in the local Universe, the molecular SLEDs indicate a small amount ~(5-15)% of dense gas (n>=10^{4}cm^{-3}) unlike NGC6240 where most of the molecular gas (~(60-70)%) is dense n~(10^4-10^5)cm^{-3}. Strong star-formation feedback can drive this disparity in their dense gas mass fractions, and also induce extreme thermal and dynamical states for the molecular gas.In NGC6240, and to a lesser degree in Arp193, we find large molecular gas masses whose thermal states cannot be maintained by FUV photons from Photon Dominated Regions (PDRs). We argue that this may happen often in metal-rich merger/starbursts, strongly altering the initial conditions of star formation. ALMA can now directly probe these conditions across cosmic epoch, and even probe their deeply dust-enshrouded outcome, the stellar IMF averaged over galactic evolution.
We present high-resolution observations (0.2-1.5) of multiple dense gas tracers, HCN and HCO$^+$ ($J$ = 1-0, 3-2, and 4-3), HNC ($J$ = 1-0), and CS ($J$ = 7-6) lines, toward the nearby luminous infrared galaxy VV 114 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. All lines are robustly detected at the central gaseous filamentary structure including the eastern nucleus and the Overlap region, the collision interface of the progenitors. We found that there is no correlation between star formation efficiency and dense gas fraction, indicating that the amount of dense gas does not simply control star formation in VV 114. We predict the presence of more turbulent and diffuse molecular gas clouds around the Overlap region compared to those at the nuclear region assuming a turbulence-regulated star formation model. The intracloud turbulence at the Overlap region might be excited by galaxy-merger-induced shocks, which also explains the enhancement of gas-phase CH$_3$OH abundance previously found there. We also present spatially resolved spectral line energy distributions of HCN and HCO$^+$ for the first time, and derive excitation parameters by assuming optically-thin and local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) conditions. The LTE model revealed that warmer, HCO$^+$-poorer molecular gas medium is dominated around the eastern nucleus, harboring an AGN. The HCN abundance is remarkably flat ($sim$3.5 $times$ 10$^{-9}$) independently of the various environments within the filament of VV 114 (i.e., AGN, star formation, and shock).