Physics Commons^™

A New Search For Interstellar C3, Charles L. Joseph, Theodore P. Snow, C Gregory Seab

Physics Faculty Publications

A new, very sensitive search for interstellar triatomic carbon has resulted in upper limits for a few diffuse clouds of order 10¹⁰ cm ^{– 2}, or about 10 ^{– 11} with respect to hydrogen. These limits are consistent with recent cold diffuse cloud chemistry models, but may be in conflict with shocked cloud models such as those invoked to explain CH ⁺ abundances. Our results may also be argue against linear carbon-chain molecules as carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands.