Astrochemistry

Discovery of Allenyl Acetylene, H2CCCHCCH, in TMC-1. A Study Of The Isomers Of C5H4

By Keith Cowing
astro-ph.GA
March 2, 2021
Filed under ,
Discovery of Allenyl Acetylene, H2CCCHCCH, in TMC-1. A Study Of The Isomers Of C5H4
TMC-1 - Taurus Molecular CLoud
ESA

We present the discovery in TMC-1 of allenyl acetylene, H2CCCHCCH, through the observation of nineteen lines with a signal-to-noise ratio ~4-15. For this species, we derived a rotational temperature of 7 +/- 1 K and a column density of (1.2 +/- 0.2)e13 cm-2.

The other well known isomer of this molecule, methyl diacetylene (CH3C4H), has also been observed and we derived a similar rotational temperature, Trot = 7.0 +/- 0.3 K, and a column density for its two states (A and E) of (6.5 +/- 0.3)e12 cm-2. Hence, allenyl acetylene and methyl diacetylene have a similar abundance. Remarkably, their abundances are close to that of vinyl acetylene (CH2CHCCH).

We also searched for the other isomer of C5H4, HCCCH2CCH (1.4-pentadiyne), but only a 3sigma upper limit of 2.5e12 cm-2 to the column density can be established. These results have been compared to state-of-the-art chemical models for TMC-1, indicating the important role of these hydrocarbons in its chemistry. The rotational parameters of allenyl acetylene have been improved by fitting the existing laboratory data together with the frequencies of the transitions observed in TMC-1.

J. Cernicharo, C. Cabezas, M. Agundez, B. Tercero, N. Marcelino, J. R. Pardo, F. Tercero, J. D. Gallego, J. A. Lopez-Perez, P. de Vicente
Comments: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2102.10920
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Cite as: arXiv:2103.01125 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2103.01125v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
Submission history
From: Marcelino Agundez
[v1] Mon, 1 Mar 2021 16:51:03 UTC (288 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.01125

Astrobiology, Astrochemistry

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻