# The Possibility of Forming Propargyl Alcohol in the Interstellar Medium

## TL;DR

This study explores the potential formation and detection of propargyl alcohol in the interstellar medium, combining chemical modeling, radiative transfer, and quantum calculations to guide future astronomical observations.

## Contribution

It presents a comprehensive chemical network analysis and detection prospects for propargyl alcohol and its isotopomers in space, including infrared vibrational data for JWST.

## Key findings

- Gaseous propargyl alcohol likely detectable in hot cores.
- Detection feasible in star-forming regions like Sgr B2(N).
- Infrared vibrational frequencies computed for future JWST observations.

## Abstract

Propargyl alcohol (HC2CH2OH, PA) has yet to be observed in the interstellar medium (ISM) although one of its stable isomers, propenal (CH2CHCHO), has already been detected in Sagittarius B2(N) with the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope in the frequency range $18-26$ GHz. In this paper, we investigate the formation of propargyl alcohol along with one of its deuterated isotopomers, HC2CH2OD(OD-PA), in a dense molecular cloud. Various pathways for the formation of PA in the gas and on ice mantles surrounding dust particles are discussed. We use a large gas-grain chemical network to study the chemical evolution of PA and its deuterated isotopomer. Our results suggest that gaseous HC2CH2OH can most likely be detected in hot cores or in collections of hot cores such as the star-forming region Sgr B2(N). A simple LTE (Local thermodynamic equilibrium) radiative transfer model is employed to check the possibility of detecting PA and OD-PA in the millimeter-wave regime. In addition, we have carried out quantum chemical calculations to compute the vibrational transition frequencies and intensities of these species in the infrared for perhaps future use in studies with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).