Protonated acetylene in the z = 0.89 molecular absorber toward PKS 1830-211

Journal article, 2024

We report the first interstellar identification of protonated acetylene, C2H3+, a fundamental hydrocarbon, in the z = 0.89 molecular absorber toward the gravitationally lensed quasar PKS 1830-211. The molecular species is identified from clear absorption features corresponding to the 212-101 (rest frequency 494.034 GHz) and 111-000 (431.316 GHz) ground-state transitions of ortho and para forms of C2H3+, respectively, in ALMA spectra toward the southwestern image of PKS 1830-211, where numerous molecules, including other hydrocarbons, have already been detected. From the simple assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) with cosmic microwave background photons and an ortho-to-para ratio of three, we estimate a total C2H3+ column density of 2 × 1012 cm-2 and an abundance of 10-10 compared to H2. However, formation pumping could affect the population of metastable states, yielding a C2H3+ column density higher than the LTE value by a factor of a few. We explore possible routes to the formation of C2H3+, mainly connected to acetylene and methane, and find that the methane route is more likely in PDR environment. As one of the initial hydrocarbon building blocks, C2H3+ is thought to play an important role in astrochemistry, in particular in the formation of more complex organic molecules.