Broadband Rotational Spectroscopy for Interstellar Chemistry

在这项由化学系化学结构、动力学和机制计划资助的奖项中，弗吉尼亚大学的Brooks H.Pate教授和他的研究生将与Michael C.McCarthy博士和哈佛-史密森天体物理中心的博士后研究助理合作，开发新的工具，通过实验室宽带微波光谱和下一代射电天文观测来发现天文环境中的化学物质。射电天文学和实验室微波光谱学都因高速数字电子设备而发生了革命性的变化，它们将数据速率提高了数量级。聚集在一起的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速度。他们还将开发计算算法，从ALMA和JVLA的化学图像中提取化学信息，包括探索通过射电天文图像中的多物种空间关联来测试所提出的星际反应机制的技术。这项工作的更广泛影响是启动了一个化学研究计划，探索数据使科学能够导致对天文和陆地环境中分子形成的新见解的方法。佩特和麦卡锡将继续与退伍军人事务部北卡罗来纳州联盟(一个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，用于夏季宇宙化学领域的研究。

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.