Detection of Two Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons via Spectral Matched Filtering

Abstract

Ubiquitous unidentified infrared emission bands are seen in many astronomical sources. Although these bands are widely, if not unanimously, attributed to the collective emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, no single species from this class has been detected in space. We present the discovery of two -CN functionalized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, 1- and 2-cyanonaphthalene, in the interstellar medium aided by spectral matched filtering. Using radio observations with the Green Bank Telescope, we observe both bi-cyclic ring molecules in the molecular cloud TMC-1. We discuss potential in situ gas-phase formation pathways from smaller organic precursor molecules.

References in corpus (22)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• Detection of the Aromatic Molecule Benzonitrile ($c$-C${}_6$H${}_5$CN) in the Interstellar Medium
• 2018 Census of Interstellar, Circumstellar, Extragalactic, Protoplanetary Disk, and Exoplanetary Molecules
• Detection of water absorption in the day side atmosphere of HD 189733 b using ground-based high-resolution spectroscopy at 3.2 microns
• Evolution of PAHs in photodissociation regions: Hydrogenation and charge states
• Formation and destruction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon clusters in the interstellar medium
• Oxygen depletion in dense molecular clouds: a clue to a low O2 abundance?
• Top-down formation of fullerenes in the interstellar medium
• A New Reference Chemical Composition for TMC-1
• On Cosmic Ray-Driven Grain Chemistry in Cold Core Models
• Improving and Assessing Planet Sensitivity of the GPI Exoplanet Survey with a Forward Model Matched Filter
• Early Science from GOTHAM: Project Overview, Methods, and the Detection of Interstellar Propargyl Cyanide (HCCCH${}_2$CN) in TMC-1
• Detecting Weak Spectral Lines in Interferometric Data through Matched Filtering
• Benzonitrile as a proxy for benzene in the cold ISM: low temperature rate coefficients for CN + C${}_6$H${}_6$
• An unbiased ALMA spectral survey of the LkCa 15 and MWC 480 protoplanetary disks
• Non-Detection of HC${}_{11}$N toward TMC-1: Constraining the Chemistry of Large Carbon-Chain Molecules
• Detection of Interstellar HC${}_4$NC and an Investigation of Isocyanopolyyne Chemistry under TMC-1 Conditions
• Isomers in Interstellar Environments (I): The Case of Z- and E-Cyanomethanimine
• First Results of an ALMA Band 10 Spectral Line Survey of NGC 6334I: Detections of Glycolaldehyde (HC(O)CH${}_2$OH) and a New Compact Bipolar Outflow in HDO and CS
• Spectral Tomography for the Line-of-Sight Structures of the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1
• Discovery of CCS Velocity-Coherent Substructures in the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1
• Detection of ${}^{13}C$ Isotopic Species of $H{C}_{7}N$

Cited by in corpus (89)

• 2021 Census of Interstellar, Circumstellar, Extragalactic, Protoplanetary Disk, and Exoplanetary Molecules
• Pure hydrocarbon cycles in TMC-1: Discovery of ethynyl cyclopropenylidene, cyclopentadiene and indene
• Discovery of the Pure Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Indene ($c$-C${}_9$H${}_8$) with GOTHAM Observations of TMC-1
• Discovery of benzyne, o-C6H4, in TMC-1 with the QUIJOTE line survey
• The Astrodust+PAH Model: A Unified Description of the Extinction, Emission, and Polarization from Dust in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium
• Discovery of Interstellar 2-Cyanoindene (2-C${}_9$H${}_7$CN) in GOTHAM Observations of TMC-1
• PDRs4All IV. An embarrassment of riches: Aromatic infrared bands in the Orion Bar
• Discovery of two isomers of ethynyl cyclopentadiene in TMC-1: Abundances of CCH and CN derivatives of hydrocarbon cycles
• Discovery of the 7-ring PAH Cyanocoronene (C${}_{24}$H${}_{11}$CN) in GOTHAM Observations of TMC-1
• Discovery of fulvenallene in TMC-1 with the QUIJOTE line survey
• Discovery of two cyano derivatives of acenaphthylene (C${}_{12}$H${}_8$) in TMC-1 with the QUIJOTE line survey
• A Search for Heterocycles in GOTHAM Observations of TMC-1
• T-carbon: experiments, properties, derivatives and potential applications
• Carbon-Chain Chemistry in the Interstellar Medium
• JWST: Deuterated PAHs, PAH-nitriles, and PAH Overtone and Combination Bands I: Program Description and First Look
• Astronomical Detection of the Interstellar Anion C10H- towards TMC-1 from the GOTHAM Large Program on the GBT
• The Mystery of Unidentified Infrared Emission Bands
• Infrared spectra at coupled cluster accuracy from neural network representations
• The Role of Acetylene in the Chemical Evolution of Carbon Complexity
• Discovery of HCCCO and C5O in TMC-1 with the QUIJOTE line survey
• Aromatic cycles are widespread in cold clouds
• Interstellar detection and chemical modeling of iso-propanol and its normal isomer
• The spatial distribution of an aromatic molecule, C6H5CN, in the cold dark cloud TMC-1
• PAH Spectroscopy from 1-5 $\mu$m
• Detection of the propargyl radical at lambda 3 mm
• Discovery of a new molecular ion, HC7NH+, in TMC-1
• Machine Learning of Interstellar Chemical Inventories
• Discovery of interstellar phenalene ($c$-C${}_{13}$H${}_{10}$): A new piece for the chemical puzzle of PAHs in space
• Toward the limits of complexity of interstellar chemistry: Rotational spectroscopy and astronomical search for n- and i-butanal
• CH3-Terminated Carbon Chains in the GOTHAM Survey of TMC-1: Evidence of Interstellar CH3C7N
• Theoretical study of infrared spectra of interstellar PAH molecules with N, NH & NH${}_2$ incorporation
• A Framework for Modeling Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission in Galaxy Evolution Simulations
• Laboratory and astronomical discovery of cyanothioketene, NCCHCS, in the cold starless core TMC-1
• Discovery of CH2CCHC4H and a rigorous detection of CH2CCHC3N in TMC-1 with the QUIJOTE line survey
• Discovery of Interstellar trans-cyanovinylacetylene (HCCCH=CHCN) and vinylcyanoacetylene (H${}_2$C=CHC${}_3$N) in GOTHAM Observations of TMC-1
• Rotational spectra of interstellar N- and CN-PAHs: pyrene and coronene
• Multiply charged naphthalene and its C10H8 isomers: bonding, spectroscopy and implications in AGN environments
• Hydrogenation of small aromatic heterocycles at low temperatures
• Discovery of CH3CHCO in TMC-1 with the QUIJOTE line survey
• Intermediate-size fullerenes as degradation products of interstellar PAHs
• The Role of Terahertz and Far-IR Spectroscopy in Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Interstellar Prebiotic Molecules
• The High-Resolution Far- to Near-Infrared Anharmonic Absorption Spectra of Cyano-Substituted Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons from 300-6200 cm${}^{-1}$
• Gas-phase spectroscopy of photostable PAH ions from the mid- to far-infrared
• Low temperature formation of pyridine and (iso)quinoline via neutral neutral reactions
• PDRs4All. XII. FUV-driven formation of hydrocarbon radicals and their relation with PAHs
• Deuterated Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Interstellar Medium: The C--D Band Strengths of Multi-Deuterated Species
• A deep search for large complex organic species toward IRAS16293-2422 B at 3 mm with ALMA
• Astrochemical model to study the abundances of branched carbon-chain molecules in a hot molecular core with realistic binding energies
• Sensitivity Analysis of Aromatic Chemistry to Gas-Phase Kinetics in a Dark Molecular Cloud Model
• The emergence of interstellar molecular complexity explained by interacting networks
• Astrochemical Modeling of Propargyl Radical Chemistry in TMC-1
• Near-infrared spectroscopy of a massive young stellar object in the direction toward the Galactic Center: XCN and aromatic C-D features
• Spectral variations among different scenarios of PAH processing or formation
• Machine-learning identified molecular fragments responsible for infrared emission features of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
• Formation of c-C6H5CN ice using the SPACE TIGER experimental setup
• Photofragmentation of Corannulene (C20H10) and Sumanene (C21H12) cations in gas phase and its Astrophysical implications
• Infrared spectra of solid indene pure and in water ice. Implications for observed IR absorptions in TMC-1
• The spatially resolved PAH characteristics in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a)
• Laboratory rotational spectroscopy and astronomical search of ethynyl substituted naphthalene
• Laser-induced fragmentation of coronene cations
• Ion-molecule routes towards cycles in TMC-1. An automated study of the C2H4 + CH2CCH+ reaction
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons destruction in star-forming regions across 42 nearby galaxies
• A search for the three isomers of cyano-1,3-butadiene in TMC-1: Implications for bottom-up routes involving 1,3-butadiene
• Chemical variations across the TMC-1 boundary: molecular tracers from translucent phase to dense phase
• Diffuse interstellar bands as dust indicators: the contribution from 3D maps
• Spectral-line Survey of the Region of Massive Star Formation W51e1/e2 in the 4 mm Wavelength Range
• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and the ionized gas
• Infrared Spectroscopy of Pentagon-Containing PAHs: Indenyl and Fluorenyl Anions and Indenyl Cation
• Laboratory measurements of stretching band strengths of deuterated Quenched Carbonaceous Composites (D-QCC)
• Formation of ${\text{H}}_2$ on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons under conditions of the ISM: an ab initio molecular dynamics study
• CN and CCH derivatives of ethylene and ethane: Confirmation of the detection of CH${}_3$CH${}_2$CCH in TMC-1
• A detection of sulfur-bearing cyclic hydrocarbons in space
• Photocleavage of aliphatic C--C bonds in the interstellar medium
• Long-Lived Isomers of C${}_{11}$H${}_9^{+}$: New Experimental Insights from the PIRENEA Setup
• Mutual neutralization of C${}_{60}^{+}$ and C${}_{60}^{-}$ ions: Excitation energies and state-selective rate coefficients
• Unmasking the physical information inherent to interstellar spectral line profiles with Machine Learning. I. Application of LTE to HCN and HNC transitions
• The SKA as a prebiotic molecule detector
• On the spectroscopy of phosphaalkynes: Millimeter- and submillimeter wave study of C2H5CP
• In situ characterization of volatile and refractory hydrocarbons produced by UV photolysis of interstellar C${}_2$H${}_2$ ice
• Reaction kinetics of CN + toluene and its implication on the productions of aromatic nitriles in the Taurus molecular cloud and Titan's atmosphere
• Aromatic Species in the Molecular Universe
• Nitrogen- and nitrogen-oxygen-bearing organic molecules in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: An untargeted investigation
• An 18-25 GHz spectroscopic survey of dense cores in the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud
• Formation of hydroxy, cyano and ethynyl derivatives of C4H4 isomers in the interstellar medium
• Searching for Corannulene with ALMA: Observations of the Red Rectangle Nebula
• An 18 - 25 GHz spectroscopic survey of southern hemisphere dense cores
• Acenaphthene Derivatives as Signatures of C${}_{11}$H${}_9^{+}$ Reactivity with Methylated Naphthalenes
• Rotational Spectra and Search for Aromatic Imines: 9-Iminofluorene and Benzophenone imine
• Research on the Interstellar Medium and Star Formation in the Galaxy: An Indian Perspective