Ammonia excitation imaging of shocked gas towards the W28 gamma-ray source HESS J1801−233

We present 12 mm Mopra observations of the dense (>103 cm−3) molecular gas towards the north-east of the W28 supernova remnant (SNR). This cloud is spatially well matched to the TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1801−233 and is known to be an SNR-molecular cloud interaction region. Shock-disruption is evident from broad NH3 (1,1) spectral linewidths in regions towards the W28 SNR, while strong detections of spatially extended NH3 (3,3), NH3(4,4) and NH3(6,6) inversion emission towards the cloud strengthen the case for the existence of high temperatures within the cloud. Velocity dispersion measurements and NH3(n,n)/(1,1) ratio maps, where n = 2, 3, 4 and 6, indicate that the source of disruption is from the side of the cloud nearest to the W28 SNR, suggesting that it is the source of cloud-disruption. Towards part of the cloud, the ratio of ortho to para-NH3 is observed to exceed 2, suggesting gas-phase NH3 enrichment due to NH3 liberation from dust-grain mantles. The measured NH3 abundance with respect to H2 is ∼(1.2 ± 0.5) × 10−9, which is not high, as might be expected for a hot, dense molecular cloud enriched by sublimated grain-surface molecules. The results are suggestive of NH3 sublimation and destruction in this molecular cloud, which is likely to be interacting with the W28 SNR shock.