Radio astrochemistry
Australia is host to some of the most powerful radio telescopes anywhere in the world, especially with the upcoming SKA-low telescope. This collaboration aims to leverage Australia’s strength and instrumentation in radio astronomy with an interdisciplinary collaboration of theoretical, laboratory and observational expertise to expand the list of known astrophysical molecules in interstellar space.
Chiral and pre-biotic complex organic molecules are of particular interest as the potential seeds of life in the universe.
The McKemmish group produce crucial new data to enable detection of new molecules and prevent mis-assignments using the tools of computational quantum chemistry.
High-throughput approaches to produce approximate spectroscopy (frequencies and intensities) of 1000s of molecules; these data that (1) helps prevent misassignments by identifying possible alternative molecular sources for observed signals, (2) can be screened to identify molecules with strong absorption that could be identified at low astrophysical concentrations.
Cutting-edge high-accuracy techniques, taking into account available experimental data, to produce high-accuracy rotational and other low-frequency spectroscopy for select molecules; these data enables detection of new molecules astrophysically.
This is a new area of research for the group, moving from infrared spectroscopy to the radio and microwave bands.
McKemmical Team (Current and Past)
Juan Camilo Zapata T.
Collaborators
Dr Chenoa Tremblay
Dr Maria Cunningham
A/Prof Evan Robertson
Dr Chris Medcraft
Available Student Projects
Providing Theoretical Guidance for Detection of Origin of Life Molecules in Space
Molecules in space are overwhelming identified through microwave spectroscopy, including the recent claimed detection of phosphine on Venus. To detect a molecule, however, astronomers need to know its spectrum. Experimental investigations, e.g. by the Medcraft group, are necessary to obtain the desired accuracy in frequency, but are time-consuming and thus the molecules to be investigated need to be carefully prioritized.
In this project, we will use computational quantum chemistry to quickly screen many molecules to identify those with the most intense spectral features (based on their dipole moment) and the approximate frequency range of their spectral features. The project will focus on molecules on interest of origin of life research that could be detected in the low frequency range of 50 – 350 MHz, i.e. the spectral range of the upcoming Western Australian Square Kilometre Array and its precursor telescopes.
Students taking this project can expect to engage with the science of computational chemistry, spectroscopy, astronomy and origin of life research while learning skills in Python, terminal command line and use of supercomputers, the Gaussian software package, automated data production and analysis techniques, and data visualisation.
