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Description
Previous radio recombination line (RRL) observations of dust clumps identified in the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) have led to the detection of a large number of RRLs in the 3mm range. Here, we aim to study their excitation with shorter wavelength (sub)millimeter radio recombination line (submm-RRL) observations. We made observations of submm-RRLs with low principal quantum numbers (n<=30) using the APEX 12m telescope, toward 104 HII regions associated with massive dust clumps from ATLASGAL. The observations covered the H25{alpha}, H28{alpha}, and H35{beta} transitions. Toward a small subsample the H26{alpha}, H27{alpha}, H29{alpha}, and H30{alpha} lines were observed to avoid contamination by molecular lines at adjacent frequencies. We have detected submm-RRLs (signal-to-noise >=3{sigma}) from compact HII regions embedded within 93 clumps. The submm-RRLs are approximately a factor of two brighter than the mm-RRLs and consistent with optically thin emission in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). The average ratio (0.31) of the measured H35{beta}/H28{alpha} fluxes is close to the LTE value of 0.28. No indication of RRL maser emission has been found. The Lyman photon flux, bolometric, and submm-RRL luminosities toward the submm-RRL detected sources present significant correlations. The trends of dust temperature and the ratio of bolometric luminosity to clump mass, L_bol_/M_clump_, indicate that the HII regions are related to L_bol_/M_clump_, indicate that the HII regions are related to the most massive and luminous clumps. By estimating the production rate of ionizing photons, Q, from the submm-RRL flux, we find that the Q(H28{alpha}) measurements provide estimates of the Lyman continuum photon flux consistent with those determined from 5GHz radio continuum emission. Six RRL sources show line profiles that are a combination of a narrow and a broad Gaussian feature. The broad features are likely associated with high-velocity ionized flows. We have detected submm-RRLs toward 93 ATLASGAL clumps. Six RRL sources have high-velocity RRL components likely driven by high-velocity ionized flows. Their observed properties are consistent with thermal emission that correlates well with the Lyman continuum flux of the HII regions. The sample of HII regions with mm/submm-RRL detections probes, in our Galaxy, luminous clumps (L_bol_>10^4^L_{sun}_) with high L_bol_/M_clump_. We also provide suitable candidates for further studies of the morphology and kinematics of embedded, compact HII regions with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
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