A New Approach to Astrophysical Spectra: The Complete Experimental Spectrum of Ethyl Cyanide (CH3CH2CN) Between 570 and 645 GHz

There is a general consensus that many of the unidentified features in astrophysical spectra are due to low lying excited vibrational and torsional states of a few molecules-commonly referred to as the astrophysical weeds. This is a challenging spectroscopic problem not only because there are many s...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2010-05, Vol.714 (1), p.476-486
Main Authors: Fortman, Sarah M, Medvedev, Ivan R, Neese, Christopher F, De Lucia, Frank C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
CYANIDES
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
FREQUENCY RANGE
GHZ RANGE
GHZ RANGE 100-1000
MOLECULES
PHYSICS
SPECTRA
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:There is a general consensus that many of the unidentified features in astrophysical spectra are due to low lying excited vibrational and torsional states of a few molecules-commonly referred to as the astrophysical weeds. This is a challenging spectroscopic problem not only because there are many such states, but also because these states are often highly perturbed and difficult to analyze. We have previously described an alternative approach based on experimental, intensity-calibrated spectra taken at many temperatures. In this paper, we describe the procedures and results obtained with this approach for ethyl cyanide, strategies for archiving and disseminating these results, and the prospects for using these results to reduce the confusion limit in the powerful new observatories that are coming online.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/714/1/476