Physical and chemical properties of molecular gas in star forming regions

In this thesis I study the physical and chemical properties of molecular gas in star forming regions. This work takes advantage of the newly developed CONDOR receiver, which allows spectrally resolved observations of emission lines at frequencies of about 1.4 THz. Thus the thesis contains observational data obtained with CONDOR as well as observations motivated by the science one can do with receivers at terahertz frequencies are largely included. In the massive star forming region NGC 2024, seven emission lines of 12CO and 13CO have been observed, including 12CO J=13-12 (f=1.497 THz) observations with CONDOR. These high-J CO data reveal a thin layer of hot (~300 K) and dense (~10e6 cm-3) molecular gas, which has not been detected with any other tracer before. This newly discovered component is located at the interface between an HII region and the molecular cloud. Furthermore, the narrow line width indicates that this layer is heated by radiation rather than by shocks. On the background of well established physical scenarios, such as the ''Blister Model'' and the PDR scenario, I developed a model of NGC 2024, using radiative transfer computations. This model explains both, the spatial distribution of density and temperature along the line of sight and the velocity structure of the source...Zsfassung in dt. und engl. Sprachethesi