Comprehensive analysis of prebiotic propenal up to 660 GHz

Abstract

Since interstellar detection of propenal is only based on two rotational transitions in the centimeter wave region, its high resolution rotational spectrum has been measured up to 660 GHz and fully characterized by assignment of more than 12,000 transitions to provide direct laboratory data to the astronomical community. Spectral assignments and analysis include transitions from the ground state of the trans and cis isomers, three trans-13C isotopologues, and ten excited vibrational states of the trans form. Combining new millimeter and submillimeter data with those from the far-infrared region has yielded the most precise set of spectroscopic constants of trans-propenal obtained to date. Newly determined rotational constants, centrifugal distortion constants, vibrational energies, and Coriolis and Fermi interaction constants are given with high accuracy and were used to predict transition frequencies and intensities over a wide frequency range. Results of this work should facilitate astronomers further observation of propenal in the interstellar medium.