Spatial Variation of the Chemical Properties of Massive Star-forming Clumps

We selected 90 massive star-forming clumps with strong N₂H⁺(1-0), HCO⁺(1-0), HCN(1-0), and HNC(1-0) emission from the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz survey. We obtained Herschel data for all 90 sources and NRAO VLA Sky Survey data for 51 of them. We convolved and regridded all images to the same resolution and pixel size and derived the temperature, H₂ column density, molecules' abundances and abundance, and ratios of each pixel. Our analysis yields three main conclusions. First, the abundances of N₂H⁺, HCO⁺, HCN, and HNC increase when the column density decreases and the temperature increases, with spatial variations in their abundances dominated by changes in the H₂ column density. Second, the abundance ratios between N₂H⁺, HCO⁺, HCN, and HNC also display systemic variations as a function of the column density due to the chemical properties of these molecules. Third, the sources associated with the 20 cm continuum emission can be classified into four types based on the behavior of the abundances of the four molecules considered here as a function of this emission. The variations of the first three types could also be attributed to the variation of the H₂ column density.