Volume 245, 2023

Hunting for interstellar molecules: rotational spectra of reactive species

Abstract

Interstellar molecules are often highly reactive species, which are unstable under terrestrial conditions, such as radicals, ions and unsaturated carbon chains. Their detection in space is usually based on the astronomical observation of their rotational fingerprints. However, laboratory investigations have to face the issue of efficiently producing these molecules and preserving them during rotational spectroscopy measurements. A general approach for producing and investigating unstable/reactive species is presented by means of selected case-study molecules. The overall strategy starts from quantum-chemical calculations that aim at obtaining accurate predictions of the missing spectroscopic information required to guide spectral analysis and assignment. Rotational spectra of these species are then recorded by exploiting the approach mentioned above, and their subsequent analysis leads to accurate spectroscopic parameters. These are then used for setting up accurate line catalogs for astronomical searches.

Graphical abstract: Hunting for interstellar molecules: rotational spectra of reactive species

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 2 2023
Accepted
13 3 2023
First published
14 3 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Faraday Discuss., 2023,245, 309-326

Hunting for interstellar molecules: rotational spectra of reactive species

C. Puzzarini, S. Alessandrini, L. Bizzocchi and M. Melosso, Faraday Discuss., 2023, 245, 309 DOI: 10.1039/D3FD00052D

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