The QUIJOTE line survey of TMC-1
J. Cernicharo, M. Agúndez, C. Cabezas, N. Marcelino, B. Tercero, J. R. Pardo, R. Fuentetaja, P. de Vicente
Abstract
We present the recent results obtained with the QUIJOTE line survey of the cold dark core TMC-1. The observations have been carried out with the YEBES 40m radio telescope (see Figure 1) in the Q-band (31-50 GHz). A new set of receivers have been installed in the telescope within the frame of the ERC synergy Nanocosmos project that allows to cover the whole 31-50 GHz band in dual polarization [1]. The spectral resolution is 38.15 kHz. The sensitivity achieved so far varies between 0.12 and 0.25 mK, and allows to search for new molecules in a line by line (no stacking) detection procedure. These new data have permitted to detect the many relatively small protonated species of abundant molecules and eight sulfur-bearing species. The most exciting result is the detection of hydrocarbon chains and cycles with low permanent dipole moment, such as CH 2 CHCCH, CH 2 CCHCCH, the propargyl radical (C 3 H 3 ), cyclopentadiene, indene (the first PAH detected in space), ortho-benzyne and two ethynyl derivatives of cyclopentadiene (c-C 5 H 5 CCH) ([2–7]). We have found that the gas-phase chemistry of hydrocarbons in TMC-1 has to be revisited in depth.