Development of Teaching Material for Undergraduate Students to Analyze the N₂H⁺ Molecular Line

Abstract

We have developed a new tool for teaching undergraduate students how to analyze the N₂H⁺ molecular emission line at 93 GHz. Due to its hyperfine structure, the molecular line consists of seven components, and it is commonly used to study the dense molecular cores that lead to star formation. In general, analyses of the molecular line are performed by searching for model parameters (such as the excitation temperature of the molecule and the optical depth of the line) that best fit the observed seven components, which is not an easy task for undergraduate students who are not yet familiar with computer programming. The developed teaching material is designed to be simple, and it can be used with just a ruler and calculator without need for preparing a complex computer program. In this paper, we introduce the teaching tool itself as well as the results of a practical application of the teaching material in a class conducting an astronomy experiment at Tokyo Gakugei University.