The irradiated ISM of ULIRGs
Astrophysics
2009-11-13 v1
Abstract
The nuclei of ULIRGs harbor massive young stars, an accreting central black hole, or both. Results are presented for molecular gas that is exposed to X-rays (1-100 keV, XDRs) and far-ultraviolet radiation (6-13.6 eV, PDRs). Attention is paid to species like HCO+, HCN, HNC, OH, H2O and CO. Line ratios of HCN/HCO+ and HNC/HCN discriminate between PDRs and XDRs. Very high J (>10) CO lines, observable with HIFI/Herschel, discriminate very well between XDRs and PDRs. In XDRs, it is easy to produce large abundances of warm (T>100 K) H2O and OH. In PDRs, only OH is produced similarly well.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0709.3430,
title = {The irradiated ISM of ULIRGs},
author = {M. Spaans and R. Meijerink and F. P. Israel and A. F. Loenen and W. A. Baan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0709.3430},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
5 pages, 6 figures, to appear in: IAU Symposium 242 Astrophysical Masers and their Environments