Astrochemistry in external galaxies: how to use molecules as probes of their physical conditions

TL;DR

This review discusses how molecular emissions can be used to probe the physical conditions of external galaxies, emphasizing the importance of multi-species, multi-line, high-resolution data and comprehensive analyses to accurately interpret molecular ratios.

Contribution

It highlights the necessity of combining chemical and radiative transfer analyses with high-resolution data to effectively use molecules as diagnostics of galactic molecular gas properties.

Findings

Molecular ratios alone often face degeneracies in interpretation.

Multi-species and multi-line high-resolution data improve diagnostic accuracy.

Integrated analyses can reveal the evolution and distribution of molecular gas.

Abstract

It is now well established that chemistry in external galaxies is rich and complex. In this review I will explore whether one can use molecular emissions to determine their physical conditions. There are several considerations to bear in mind when using molecular emission, and in particular molecular ratios, to determine the densities, temperatures and energetics of a galaxy, which I will briefly summarise here. I will then present an example of a study that uses multiple chemical and radiative transfer analyses in order to tackle the too often neglected `degeneracies' implicit in the interpretation of molecular ratios and show that only via such analyses combined with multi-species and multi-lines high spatial resolution data one can truly make molecules into powerful diagnostics of the evolution and distribution of molecular gas.