High dense gas fraction in intensely star-forming dusty galaxies at high redshift

Abstract

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.