Spectroscopy of plasmas of astrophysical interest

Conferencia invitada ; A LABoratory spectroscopy workshop for ASTROphysics (ALABASTRO); Jaca (España); 27-30 June 2016; http://www.iem.csic.es/fismol/Alabastro/Astrophysics and ion spectroscopy have been closely related since the middle of the last century. Molecular ions like CH+ or HCO+ are among the first species detected in the Interstellar Medium (ISM) thanks to their emissions in the UV-visible and/or microwave regions, and some of those ions play a key role in the formation of more complex molecules in space. However, the spectroscopic laboratory study of molecular ions didn¿t begin to be carried out until the 80s and 90s of the last century, with the pioneering study about the infrared spectra of H3+ [1] in a glow discharge of H2, which allowed its subsequent identification in the space [2]. Up to date, more than 200 molecules have been detected in the ISM, mostly by spectroscopy at radio and millimeter wavelengths. Among them, some molecular ions (positively and negatively charged) have been detected, many of which are protonated species, which are quite ¿exotic¿ and unstable under normal terrestrial conditions, for example H3+, ArH+, N2H+, H3O+, etc. and some of their isotopomers. Recent research on new star formation regions using telescopes in the far infrared and submillimeter ranges have renewed the interest in the spectroscopy of these ions.Funding: CDS2009-00038, FIS20012 -38175, FIS2013-48087-C2-1-P, ERC-2013-Syg 610256Peer Reviewe