W2020: A Database of Validated Rovibrational Experimental Transitions and Empirical Energy Levels of H216O

Abstract

A detailed understanding of the complex rotation–vibration spectrum of the water molecule is vital for many areas of scientific and human activity, and thus, it is well studied in a number of spectral regions. To enhance our perception of the spectrum of the parent water isotopologue, H216O, a dataset of 270 745 non-redundant measured transitions is assembled, analyzed, and validated, yielding 19 204 rovibrational energy levels with statistically reliable uncertainties. The present study extends considerably an analysis of the rovibrational spectrum of H216O, published in 2013, by employing an improved methodology, considering about one-third more new observations (often with greatly decreased uncertainties), and using a highly accurate first-principles energy list for validation purposes. The database of experimental rovibrational transitions and empirical energy levels of H216O created during this study is called W2020. Some of the new transitions in W2020 allow the improved treatment of many parts of the dataset, especially considering the uncertainties of the experimental line positions and the empirical energy values. The W2020 dataset is examined to assess where measurements are still lacking even for this most thoroughly studied isotopologue of water, and to provide definitive energies for the lower and upper states of many yet-to-be-measured transitions. The W2020 dataset allows the evaluation of several previous compilations of spectroscopic data of water and the accuracy of previous effective Hamiltonian fits.