Broadband Rotational Spectroscopy for Interstellar Chemistry

在这个由化学部化学结构、动力学和机制项目资助的奖项中，布鲁克斯H。佩特和他在弗吉尼亚大学的研究生们将与迈克尔·C. McCarthy和哈佛-史密森天体物理中心的博士后研究员开发新工具，通过实验室宽带微波光谱学和下一代射电天文学观测发现天文环境中的化学。 射电天文学和实验室微波光谱学都被高速数字电子技术彻底改变，这些电子技术将数据速率提高了一个数量级。 这个研究小组将开发新的方法，利用这些技术进步来提高星际分子的发现率。 他们还将开发计算算法，从阿尔马和JVLA的化学图像中提取化学信息，包括探索通过射电天文学图像中的多物种空间相关性来测试拟议的星际反应机制的技术。这项工作的更广泛影响是启动一项化学研究计划，探索数据支持的科学如何导致对天文学和宇宙学中分子形成的新见解。陆地环境。 Pate和McCarthy将继续与VA NC联盟（NSF LSAMP计划）合作，在代表性不足的少数群体中招募早期职业本科生，进行宇宙化学领域的夏季研究。

In this award funded by the Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms Program of the Chemistry Division, Prof. Brooks H. Pate and his graduate students at the University of Virginia will collaborate with Dr. Michael C. McCarthy and a postdoctoral research associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics to develop new tools to discover chemistry in astronomical environments through laboratory broadband microwave spectroscopy and next-generation radio astronomy observations. Both radio astronomy and laboratory microwave spectroscopy have been revolutionized by high-speed digital electronics that have increased data rates by order-of-magnitude. The assembled research group will develop new approaches that exploit these technological advances to increase the rate of discovery of interstellar molecules. They will also develop computational algorithms to extract chemical information from chemical images from ALMA and JVLA including exploring techniques to test proposed interstellar reaction mechanisms through multispecies spatial correlations in radio astronomy images.The broader impact of this work is the initiation of a research program in chemistry that explores ways that data enabled science can lead to new insight about the formation of molecules in astronomical and terrestrial environments. Pate and McCarthy will continue to work with the VA NC Alliance (an NSF LSAMP program) to recruit early career undergraduates in under-represented minority groups for summer research in the area of the chemistry of the universe.