Laboratory detection of the C3H radical

Abstract

Millimeter-wave lines of the C3H radical, including six of the lines observed in space, were detected in a laboratory glow discharge through a flowing mixture of C2H2, He, and CO. Each of the 10 rotational transitions measured, five between 98 and 185 GHz in the 2Pi1/2 ladder and five between 80 and 194 GHz in the 2Pi3/2 ladder, is split by lambda-type doubling, and all but three possess resolved hyperfine structure. The excellent agreement between the fine-structure, rotation, lambda-doubling, and hyperfine constants derived from the laboratory data and from the astronomical observations conclusively confirms the identifications in IRC +10216 and TMC-1 by Thaddeus and colleagues (1985). An accurate set of spectroscopic constants, which allow calculation of the entire radio spectrum of C3H to a radial velocity of 0.1 km/s, was derived from a simulataneous fit to the laboratory frequencies and to the well-resolved hfs observed in the narrow-line astronomical source TMC-1.