THE GROUND TORSIONAL STATE OF ACETALDEHYDE

New microwave measurements on the ground state of acetaldehyde have been carried out using a Fourier transform spectrometer in the region from 7 to 26 GHz (typical measurement uncertainty 4 kHz), and a conventional Stark spectrometer in the region from 45 to 116 GHz (typical measurement uncertainty 40 kHz). These new ground state measurements and remeasurements have permitted a much better fit to two theoretical models of a data set containing far-infrared combination differences from the literature, microwave transitions from the literature, and the new microwave transitions. Root-mean-square residuals obtained here for all these data (which come from a large number of sources) are only slightly larger (for either model) than the estimated measurement uncertainties. The first theoretical model is essentially a high-barrier effective Hamiltonian for one vibrational state only, based on Fourier expansions in terms of the form cos( 2πn 3)(ρK - σ). The second model is based on calculation using the internal-rotation potential function, and is in principle much more powerful than the first. The present successful fits using either model indicate that earlier fitting difficulties using the second model and a combined infrared and microwave data set were caused by problems in the microwave data set, rather than problems in the model. It is hoped that similar success can be achieved with the more powerful second model when data from higher excited torsional states are considered. © 1991.