Molecular abundances in the Magellanic Clouds I.
Molecular abundances in the Magellanic Clouds
I. A multiline study of five cloud cores

Y.-N. Chin
Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Academia Sinica
P.O. Box 1-87 Nankang, 115 Taipei, Taiwan
and
Radioastronomisches Institut der Universität Bonn
Auf dem Hügel 71, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
C. Henkel
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
J.B. Whiteoak
Paul Wild Observatory, Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO
Locked Bag 194, Narrabri NSW 2390, Australia
T.J. Millar
Department of Physics, UMIST
PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, United Kingdom
M.R. Hunt
University of Western Sydney Nepean
P.O. Box 10, Kingswood, NSW 2747, Australia
C. Lemme
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
and
Institut für Planetenerkundung, DLR
Rudower Chaussee 5, D-12489 Berlin, Germany

Paper published in January 1997 by the Main Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Vol. 317, pp. 548 - 562. If you want to have a look at the complete paper please click here (PostScript file of 1779264 bytes).
Abstract. Nine HII regions of the LMC were mapped in 13CO(1-0) and three in 12CO(1-0) to study the physical properties of the interstellar medium in the Magellanic Clouds. For N113 the molecular core is found to have a peak position which differs from that of the associated HII region by 20. Toward this molecular core the 12CO and 13CO peak TMB line temperatures of 7.3 K and 1.2 K are the highest so far found in the Magellanic Clouds. The molecular concentrations associated with N113, N44BC, N159HW, and N214DE in the LMC and LIRS36 in the SMC were investigated in a variety of molecular species to study the chemical properties of the interstellar medium. I(HCO+)/I(HCN) and I(HCN)/I(HNC) intensity ratios as well as lower limits to the I(13CO)/I(C18O) ratio were derived for the rotational 1-0 transitions. Generally, HCO+ is stronger than HCN, and HCN is stronger than HNC. The high relative HCO+ intensities are consistent with a high ionization flux from supernovae remnants and young stars, possibly coupled with a large extent of the HCO+ emission region. The bulk of the HCN arises from relatively compact dense cloud cores. Warm or shocked gas enhances HCN relative to HNC. From chemical model calculations it is predicted that I(HCN)/I(HNC) close to one should be obtained with higher angular resolution (>~ 30) toward the cloud cores. Comparing virial masses with those obtained from the integrated CO intensity provides an H2 mass-to-CO luminosity conversion factor of 1.8 × 1020 mol cm-2 (K*kms)-1 for N113 and 2.4 × 1020 mol cm-2 (K*kms)-1 for N44BC. This is consistent with values derived for the Galactic disk.

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