Rotational spectroscopy of the HCCO and DCCO radicals in the millimeter and submillimeter range

Context. The ketenyl radical HCCO has recently been detected in the interstellar medium (ISM) for the first time. Further astronomical detections of HCCO will help us understand its gas-grain chemistry, and subsequently revise the oxygen-bearing chemistry towards dark clouds. Moreover, its deuterated counterpart DCCO has never been observed in the ISM. A broad spectroscopic investigation is still lacking for both HCCO and DCCO, although they exhibit a significant astrophysical relevance. Aims. In this work we aim to measure the pure rotational spectra of the ground state of HCCO and DCCO in the millimeter and submillimeter region, considerably extending the frequency range covered by previous studies. Methods. The spectral acquisition was performed using a frequency-modulation absorption spectrometer between 170 and 650 GHz. The radicals were produced in a low-density plasma generated from a select mixture of gaseous precursors. We were able to detect and assign more than 100 rotational lines for each isotopolog. Results. The new lines have significantly enhanced the previous data set allowing the determination of highly precise rotational and centrifugal distortion parameters. In our analysis we took into account the interaction between the ground electronic state and a low-lying excited state (Renner-Teller pair) which enables the prediction and assignment of rotational transitions with Ka up to 4. Conclusions. The present set of spectroscopic parameters provides highly accurate, millimeter, and submillimeter rest-frequencies of HCCO and DCCO for future astronomical observations. We also show that towards the pre-stellar core L1544, ketenyl peaks in the region where c-C3H2 peaks, suggesting that HCCO follows a predominant hydrocarbon chemistry, as already proposed by recent gas-grain chemical models.