Protonated acetylene in the z = 0.89 molecular absorber toward PKS 1830-211

Abstract

We report the first interstellar identification of protonated acetylene, C2H3+, a fundamental hydrocarbon, in the z = 0.89 molecular absorber toward the gravitationally lensed quasar PKS 1830–211. The molecular species is identified from clear absorption features corresponding to the 212–101 (rest frequency 494.034 GHz) and 111–000 (431.316 GHz) ground-state transitions of ortho and para forms of C2H3+, respectively, in ALMA spectra toward the southwestern image of PKS 1830-211, where numerous molecules, including other hydrocarbons, have already been detected. From the simple assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) with cosmic microwave background photons and an ortho-to-para ratio of three, we estimate a total C2H3+ column density of 2 × 1012 cm−2 and an abundance of 10−10 compared to H2. However, formation pumping could affect the population of metastable states, yielding a C2H3+ column density higher than the LTE value by a factor of a few. We explore possible routes to the formation of C2H3+, mainly connected to acetylene and methane, and find that the methane route is more likely in PDR environment. As one of the initial hydrocarbon building blocks, C2H3+ is thought to play an important role in astrochemistry, in particular in the formation of more complex organic molecules.