Analysis of the rotational spectrum of methylene (CH2) in its vibronic ground state with an Euler expansion of the Hamiltonian

Abstract

We present an analysis of a global, field-free data set of the methylene radical CH2 in its X 3B1 vibronic ground state by means of a novel Euler expansion of the Hamiltonian. The data set comprises pure rotational transitions up to 2 THz obtained with microwave accuracies of 30-500 kHz as well as nu2 ground-state combination differences and pure rotational data obtained with infrared accuracies of 0.001-0.010 cm(-1). Highly accurate spectroscopic parameters have been determined. These include rotational, spin-spin, spin-rotation, and electron-spin-nuclear-spin coupling terms along with several centrifugal distortion corrections. The spectroscopic model has been tested and improved by recording newly three weak DeltaN not equalDeltaJ fine-structure components of the N(KaKc)=2(12)-3(03) and 5(05)-4(14) transitions near 434, 454, and 581 GHz. These lines were rather close to the predictions. Overall weighted root mean squares of 1.28 and 0.83 were achieved for fits in which the Euler expansion was used only for the rotational part of the Hamiltonian or for the rotational and spin-spin terms of the Hamiltonian, respectively. The resulting spectroscopic parameters allow for precise frequency predictions of astrophysically important rotational transitions of methylene.