Description
Extragalactic observations allow the study of molecular chemistry and excitation under physical conditions which may differ greatly from what found in the Milky Way. The compact, obscured nuclei (CON) of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRG) combine large molecular columns with intense infrared (IR), ultra-violet (UV) and X- radiation and represent ideal laboratories to study the chemistry of the interstellar medium (ISM) under extreme conditions. To obtain for the first time a multi-band spectral scan of a LIRG, in order to derive the molecular abundances and excitation, to be compared to other Galactic and extragalactic environments. We obtained an ALMA Cycle 0 spectral scan of the dusty LIRG NGC 4418, spanning a total of 70.7GHz in bands 3, 6, and 7. We use a combined local thermal equilibrium (LTE) and non-LTE (NLTE) fit of the spectrum in order to identify the molecular species and derive column densities and excitation temperatures. We derive molecular abundances and compare them with other Galactic and extragalactic sources by means of a principal component analysis.
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