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Description
We report observations of the formaldehyde (H_2_CO) 6cm (4.8GHz) line toward L1551. The observations were conducted with the Arecibo Telescope (beam FWHP~1') to verify the tentative detection of H_2_CO thermal emission reported by Duncan and collaborators in 1987MNRAS.224..721D. The H_2_CO emission lines were expected to be present with a signal-to-noise ratio of >~10 in our spectra. However, we did not detect H_2_CO emission; i.e., our data rule out their tentative detection. The absence of H_2_CO emission is also confirmed by the fact that the H_2_CO line profiles at the two positions of expected emission are well fitted by a single absorption component (accounting for the hyperfine structure of the line) in one of the positions and by a single absorption line plus a red-wing absorption component in the second position. The Orion BN/KL region remains the only H_2_CO 6cm thermal emitter known. Our observations also demonstrate that the H_2_CO 6cm absorption line traces not only the quiescent molecular cloud but also the kinematics associated with the star formation process in L1551-IRS5.
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