Extragalactic Chemistry: HCN, HNC, and HCO⁺

¹ Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands; e-mail: loenen@astro.rug.nl
² ASTRON, PO Box 2, 79900 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
³ Astronomy Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Abstract

High- and low-density tracer molecules have been observed in (Ultra-) Luminous Infrared Galaxies in order to initiate multi-molecule multi-transition studies to evaluate the physical and chemical environment of the nuclear medium and the ongoing nuclear activity. The data, augmented with data available in the literature, are presented in Baan et al. (2007), which also presents a first order analysis. Here, we present the chemical analysis of the J = 1–0 transition lines of HCN, HNC, and HCO⁺.