10min:
LABORATORY OBSERVATION OF THE ROTATIONAL SPECTRUM OF A POTENTIAL INTERSTELLAR SUGAR, ERYTHROSE.

I. PENA, C. CABEZAS, A. M. DALY, S. MATA, J. L. ALONSO, Grupo de Espectroscopía Molecular (GEM), Edificio Quifima, Laboratorios de Espectroscopía y Bioespectroscopía, Parque Científico, Universidad de Valladolid, 47011 Valladolid, Spain.

The rotational spectrum of erythrose has been recorded in the frequency region 6 -- 12~GHz using a chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectrometer (CP-FTMW)\footnoteG.~G.~Brown, B.~C.~Dian, K.~O.~Douglass, S.~M.~Geyer, S.~T.~Shipman, B.~H.~Pate, Rev. Sci. Instrum. \textbf2008, 79 , 053103. combined with a laser ablation (LA) source.\footnoteS.~Mata, I.~Peña, C.~Cabezas, J.~C.~López, J.~L.~Alonso, J. Mol. Spectrosc. \textbf2012, 280 , 91. The investigation of rotational spectra of erythrose is of astrophysical and biological relevance. However, no gas-phase data were available on erythrose. It is syrup at room temperature and vaporization using conventional methods leads to decomposition. A non convetional laser ablation method has been successfully used to vaporize erythrose and two cyclic forms have been observed using rotational spectroscopy. alpha-erythrose has been found to have rotational constants are A = 2586.8998~(21)~MHz, B = 2353.0837~(41)~MHz and C = 1773.2378~(18)~MHz and beta-erythrose is characterized with rotational constants A = 3109.2005~(46)~MHz, B = 1856.1298~(15)~MHz, C = 1616.5557~(18)~MHz.