LLWP -- A new Loomis-Wood Software at the Example of Acetone-13C1

TL;DR

This paper introduces LLWP, a user-friendly Loomis-Wood software designed to analyze complex molecular spectra like that of acetone-13C1, facilitating faster and more confident spectral assignments for radio astronomical research.

Contribution

The paper presents LLWP, a new Loomis-Wood software that improves the analysis of dense molecular spectra, demonstrated on acetone-13C1, with emphasis on usability and broad applicability.

Findings

LLWP enables faster spectral analysis of complex molecules.

The software provides confident assignments in crowded spectra.

Predicted spectra support future radio astronomical searches.

Abstract

Acetone-13C1 is a complex organic molecule with two internal methyl (-CH3) rotors having relatively low effective barriers to internal rotation of about 249 cm-1. This leads to two low-lying torsional modes and five internal rotation components resulting in a dense and complicated spectrum. In this study, measurements of acetone-13C1 were performed with an isotopically enriched sample in the frequency range 37-1102 GHz. Predicted spectra of acetone-13C1 created with ERHAM allow for future radio astronomical searches. Loomis-Wood plots are one approach to improve and fasten the analysis of such crowded spectra. In this study, the new Loomis-Wood software LLWP was used for fast and confident assignments. LLWP focuses on being user-friendly, intuitive, and applicable to a broad range of assignment tasks. The software is presented here and can be downloaded from llwp.astro.uni-koeln.de.