Doubly 15N-substituted diazenylium: THz laboratory spectra and fractionation models

• Context. Isotopic fractionation in dense molecular cores has been suggested as a possible origin of large 14N/15N ratio variations in solar system materials. While chemical models can explain some observed variations with different fractionation patterns for molecules with –NH or –CN functional groups, they fail to reproduce the observed ratios in diazenylium (N2H+).Aims. Observations of doubly 15N-substituted species could provide important constraints and insights for theoretical chemical models of isotopic fractionation. However, spectroscopic data are very scarce.Methods. The rotational spectra of the fully 15N-substituted isopologues of the diazenylium ion, 15N2H+ and 15N2D+, have been investigated in the laboratory well into the THz region by using a source-modulation microwave spectrometer equipped with a negative glow discharge cell. An extended chemical reaction network has been used to estimate what ranges of 15N fractionation in doubly 15N-substituted species could be expected in the interstellar medium (ISM).Results. For each isotopologue of the H- and D-containing pair, nine rotational transitions were accurately measured in the frequency region 88 GHz–1.2 THz. The analysis of the spectrum provided very precise rest frequencies at millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths, useful for the radioastronomical identification of the rotational lines of 15N2H+ and 15N2D+ in the ISM.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Kemi -- Analytisk kemi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Chemical Sciences -- Analytical Chemistry (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Atom- och molekylfysik och optik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

methods:laboratory:molecular

astrochemistry

techniques:spectroscopic

ISM:molecules

molecular data

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)