Dense molecular gas toward W49A: A template for extragalactic
  starbursts?
  The HCN, HCO+, and HNC molecules are commonly used as tracers of dense
star-forming gas in external galaxies, but such observations are spatially
unresolved. Reliably inferring the properties of galactic nuclei and disks
requires detailed studies of sources whose structure is spatially resolved. We
compare the spatial distributions and abundance ratios of HCN, HCO+, and HNC in
W49A, the most massive and luminous star-forming region in the Galactic disk,
based on maps of a 2' (6.6 pc) field at 14" (0.83 pc) resolution of the J=4-3
transitions of HCN, H13CN, HC15N, HCO+, H13CO+, HC18O+ and HNC. The kinematics
of the molecular gas in W49A appears complex, with a mixture of infall and
outflow motions. Both the line profiles and comparison of the main and rarer
species show that the main species are optically thick. Two 'clumps' of
infalling gas appear to be at ~40 K, compared to ~100 K at the source centre,
and may be ~10x denser than the rest of the outer cloud. Chemical modelling
suggests that the HCN/HNC ratio probes the current gas temperature, while the
HCN/HCO+ ratio and the deuterium fractionation were set during an earlier,
colder phase of evolution. The data suggest that W49A is an appropriate
analogue of an extragalactic star forming region. Our data show that the use of
HCN/HNC/HCO+ line ratios as proxies for the abundance ratios is incorrect for
W49A, suggesting the same for galactic nuclei. Our observed isotopic line
ratios such as H13CN/H13CO+ approach our modeled abundance ratios quite well in
W49A. The 4-3 lines of HCN and HCO+ are much better tracers of the dense
star-forming gas in W49A than the 1-0 lines. Our observed HCN/HNC and HCN/HCO+
ratios in W49A are inconsistent with homogeneous PDR or XDR models, indicating
that irradiation hardly affects the gas chemistry in W49A. Overall, the W49A
region appears to be a useful template for starburst galaxies.
