Regular Article

Measurement of rotational temperature of AlO molecule from Fourier transform spectrum of the 0–0 band of B²Σ⁺–X²Σ⁺ band system

¹ Department of Physics, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad 431004, India
² Department of Physics, MIT Polytechnic College, Aurangabad 431005, India
³ Department of Physics, Mahatma Gandhi Mahavidyalaya, Ahmedpur 413515, India

Received: 1 June 2016
Received in final form: 14 June 2018
Published online: 4 September 2018

Abstract

The astrophysical importance of AlO molecule and its astronomical significance is well known. The existence of AlO molecule in the atmospheres of M type of stars is reported. The identification of B–X system in spectrum of some normal Mira giants and Mira variables is reported in literature. In the present work, the high resolution spectrum of the B²Σ⁺–X²Σ⁺ system of AlO was recorded on a Fourier Transform Spectrometer. By measuring the intensities of the well-resolved rotational lines of R₁ and R₂ branches of the (0–0) band measured the rotational temperature is calculated which is 1967 ± 75 K.