T HE C OMPLETE, T EMPERATURE R ESOLVED E XPERIMENTAL S PECTRUM OF M ETHANOL B ETWEEN 560 AND 654 GH Z Sarah M. Fortman, Christopher F. Neese, and Frank C. De Lucia
Radio Astronomy Around 180 molecules have been detected in the interstellar medium or circumstellar shells
Highly Sensitive Modern Telescopes The success of radio astronomy has lead to bigger and better spectrometers such as Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Herschel Space Observatory The spectrometers are highly sensitive and spectra contain many unidentified lines. Many of these lines are from the low-lying vibrational states of a few common carriers We are starting to observe regions such as hot molecular cores that are warmer than the typical 100 K of the ISM.
Astrochemical Weeds Sulfur Dioxide Acetonitrile (Methyl cyanide) Acrylonitrile (Vinyl cyanaide) Propionitrile (Ethyl cyanide) Methanol Methyl formate Dimethyl ether
Methanol’s spectrum is well known for being highly complex Non-rigid internal rotor Significant internal rotor splitting Significant centrifugal distortion effects Methanol is a challenge to fit quantum mechanically Use a highly effective Hamiltonian Exclude lines that don’t fit well Hand select bands to include Manually adjust intensities when necessary Some intensities may still have errors Spectroscopic Complexity
Complete Temperature Resolved Spectrum
Methanol 560.4–654.0 GHz 166 CTRS 248–397 K Complete Temperature Resolved Spectrum
How Complete is the Catalog?
Details, details
Temperature Calibration
Point-by-Point Reduction
Theoretical Studies
Comparison to Theory
Summary