Thursday, November 8, 2012

1211.1568 (V. Guzmán et al.)

The hyperfine structure in the rotational spectrum of CF+    [PDF]

V. Guzmán, E. Roueff, J. Gauss, J. Pety, P. Gratier, J. R. Goicoechea, M. Gerin, D. Teyssier
Context. CF+ has recently been detected in the Horsehead and Orion Bar photo-dissociation regions. The J=1-0 line in the Horsehead is double-peaked in contrast to other millimeter lines. The origin of this double-peak profile may be kinematic or spectroscopic. Aims. We investigate the effect of hyperfine interactions due to the fluorine nucleus in CF+ on the rotational transitions. Methods. We compute the fluorine spin rotation constant of CF+ using high-level quantum chemical methods and determine the relative positions and intensities of each hyperfine component. This information is used to fit the theoretical hyperfine components to the observed CF+ line profiles, thereby employing the hyperfine fitting method in GILDAS. Results. The fluorine spin rotation constant of CF+ is 229.2 kHz. This way, the double-peaked CF+ line profiles are well fitted by the hyperfine components predicted by the calculations. The unusually large hyperfine splitting of the CF+ line therefore explains the shape of the lines detected in the Horsehead nebula, without invoking intricate kinematics in the UV-illuminated gas.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.1568

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