Abstract Using data from Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team Survey at 90 GHz (MALT90), we present a molecular line study of a sample of APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) clumps. Twelve emission lines have been detected in all. We found that in most sources, emissions of HC3N, HN13C, CH3CN, HNCO and SiO show more compact distributions than those of HCO+, HNC, HCN and N2H+. By comparing with other molecular lines, we found that the abundance of HNCO (χ(HNCO)) correlates well with other species such as HC3N, HNC, C2H, H13CO+ and N2H+. Previous studies indicate the HNCO abundance could be enhanced by shocks. However, in this study, we find the abundance of HNCO does not correlate well with that of SiO, which is also a good tracer of shocks. We suggest this may be because HNCO and SiO trace different parts of shocks. Our analysis indicates that the velocity of a shock traced by HNCO tends to be lower than that traced by SiO. In the low-velocity shocks traced by HNCO, the HNCO abundance increases faster than that of SiO. While in the relatively high-velocity shocks traced by SiO, the SiO abundance increases faster than that of HNCO. We suggest that in the infrared dark cloud MSXDC G331.71+00.59, high-velocity shocks are destroying the molecule HNCO.
Keywords stars: formation — ISM: abundances — ISM: clouds — ISM: molecules
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