Laboratory Measurements and Tentative Astronomical Identification of H2NCO+
Abstract
The rotational spectrum of H2NCO+, the ground-state isomer of protonated HNCO, has been measured in a molecular beam in the centimeter band with a Fourier transform microwave spectrometer and in a low-pressure laboratory discharge in absorption in the millimeter band. Spectroscopic constants, including the nitrogen-14 hyperfine coupling constant, derived from 30 a-type transitions between 20 and 367 GHz with J <= 18 and Ka <= 3 allow the principal rotational transitions to be calculated to 1 km s-1 or better in equivalent radial velocity well into the far IR. Two low-lying rotational transitions of H2NCO+ in the centimeter band (00, 0-10, 1 and 11, 0-21, 1) were tentatively identified in absorption in the PRIMOS spectral line survey of Sgr B2(N) with the Green Bank Telescope. The lines of H2NCO+ arise in a region of the Sgr B2(N) halo whose density is low (n < 1 × 104 cm-3). The derived column density of (6-14) × 1011 cm-2 implies that the fractional abundance is ~10-12. Owing to the ubiquity of HNCO in galactic molecular clouds, H2NCO+ is a good candidate for detection in sources spanning a wide range of physical conditions.
- Publication:
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The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1088/2041-8205/778/1/L1
- Bibcode:
- 2013ApJ...778L...1G
- Keywords:
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- ISM: molecules