High dense gas fraction in intensely star-forming dusty galaxies at high
  redshift
  We present ALMA and VLA detections of the dense molecular gas tracers HCN,
HCO$^+$ and HNC in two lensed, high-redshift starbursts selected from the {\it
Herschel}-ATLAS survey: {\it H}-ATLAS\,J090740.0$-$004200 (SDP.9, $z \sim 1.6$)
and {\it H}-ATLAS\,J091043.1$-$000321 (SDP.11, $z \sim 1.8$). ALMA observed the
$J = 3-2$ transitions in both sources, while the VLA observed the $J = 1-0$
transitions in SDP.9. We have detected all observed HCN and HCO$^+$ lines in
SDP.9 and SDP.11, and also HNC(3--2) in SDP.9. The amplification factors for
both galaxies have been determined from sub-arcsec resolution CO and dust
emission observations carried out with NOEMA and the SMA. The
HNC(1--0)/HCN(1--0) line ratio in SDP.9 suggests the presence of
photon-dominated regions, as it happens to most local (U)LIRGs. The CO, HCN and
HCO$^+$ SLEDs of SDP.9 are compatible to those found for many local, infrared
(IR) bright galaxies, indicating that the molecular gas in local and
high-redshift dusty starbursts can have similar excitation conditions. We
obtain that the correlation between total IR ($L_{\rm IR}$) and dense line
($L_{\rm dense}$) luminosity in SDP.9 and SDP.11 and local star-forming
galaxies can be represented by a single relation. The scatter of the $L_{\rm
IR} - L_{\rm dense}$ correlation, together with the lack of sensitive dense
molecular gas tracer observations for a homogeneous sample of high-redshift
galaxies, prevents us from distinguishing differential trends with redshift.
Our results suggest that the intense star formation found in some high-redshift
dusty, luminous starbursts is associated with more massive dense molecular gas
reservoirs and higher dense molecular gas fractions.
