AN EXHAUSTIVE ISOTOPIC STUDY OF THE ABUNDANT ASTRONOMICAL MOLECULE CYCLOPROPENYLIDENE, c-C$_3$H$_2$
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Date
2009
Journal Title
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Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University
Abstract
Cyclopropenylidene, c-C$_3$H$_2$, is the most widely distributed ring in our galaxy; it has been detected in more than 50 astronomical sources, and its isotopic species c-C$_3$HD has been observed towards several dense cores in cold dark clouds. Because of the high observed abundance and large deuterium fractionation for this small hydrocarbon ring, other isotopic species of c-C$_3$H$_2$ may be good candidates for astronomical detection. For these reasons, an exhaustive isotopic study of c-C$_3$H$_2$ has now been undertaken in which rotational spectra of c-C$_3$D$_2$, c-C$_3$HD, and the carbon--13 isotopic species of c-C$_3$HD and c-C$_3$H$_2$ have been detected in the centimeter-wave band by Fourier transform microwave (FTM) spectroscopy between 10 and 40~GHz. For c-C$_3$D$_2$, millimeter- and submillimeter-wave spectra were subsequently measured between 140 and 400~GHz. Rotational and centrifugal distortion constants derived either from previous measurements or those predicted from theory are compared with the precise constants determined here. % #######################################################################
Description
Author Institution: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, and School of Engineering \& Applied Sciences, Harvard University, 29 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA 02138