Spectroscopic constants and vibrational frequencies for l-C 3H+ and isotopologues from highly accurate quartic force fields: The detection of l-C3H+ in the horsehead nebula PDR questioned

Abstract

Very recently, molecular rotational transitions observed in the photon-dominated region of the Horsehead nebula have been attributed to l-C3H+. In an effort to corroborate this finding, we employed state-of-the-art and proven high-accuracy quantum chemical techniques to compute spectroscopic constants for this cation and its isotopologues. Even though the B rotational constant from the fit of the observed spectrum and our computations agree to within 20 MHz, a typical level of accuracy, the D rotational constant differs by more than 40%, while the H rotational constant differs by three orders of magnitude. With the likely errors in the rotational transition energies resulting from this difference in D on the order of 1 MHz for the lowest observed transition (J = 4 → 3) and growing as J increases, the assignment of the observed rotational lines from the Horsehead nebula to l-C3H+ is questionable. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..