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We found four series of harmonically related lines in IRC\,+10216 with the Yebes\,40m and IRAM\,30m telescopes. The first series corresponds to a molecule with a rotational constant, $B$, of 1448.5994$\pm$0.0013 MHz and a distortion constant, $D$, of 63.45$\pm$1.15 Hz and covers upper quantum numbers from $J_u$=11 up to 33 (B1449). The second series is fitted with $B$=1446.9380$\pm$0.0098 MHz and $D$=91$\pm$23 Hz and covers upper quantum numbers from $J_u$=11 up to 17 (B1447). The third series is fitted with $B$=598.7495$\pm$0.0011 MHz and D=6.13$\pm$0.43 Hz and covers quantum numbers from $J_u$=26 up to 41 (B599). Finally, the frequencies of the last series of lines can be reproduced with $B$=594.3176$\pm$0.0026 MHz and $D$=4.92$\pm$1.16 Hz (B594). The large values of $D$ point toward four metal-bearing carriers. After exploring all plausible candidates containing Na, Al, Mg, and other metals, our ab initio calculations indicate that the cations MgC$_4$H$^+$, MgC$_3$N$^+$, MgC$_6$H$^+$, and MgC$_5$N$^+$ must be the carriers of B1449, B1447, B599, and B594, respectively. These cations could be formed by the radiative association of Mg$^+$ with C$_4$H, C$_3$N, C$_6$H, and C$_5$N, respectively. We calculated the radiative association rate coefficient of Mg$^+$ with C$_4$H, C$_3$N, C$_6$H, and C$_5$N and incorporated them in our chemical model. The results confirm that the Mg-bearing cations can be formed through these radiative association reactions in the outer layers of IRC\,+10216. This is the first time that cationic metal-bearing species have been found in space. These results provide a new paradigm on the reactivity of ionized metals with abundant radicals and open the door for further characterization of similar species in metal-rich astrophysical environments.

We report the detection of magnesium dicarbide, MgC2, in the laboratory at centimeter wavelengths and assign 24MgC225MgC2, and 26MgC2 to 14 unidentified lines in the radio spectrum of the circumstellar envelope of the evolved carbon star IRC+10216. The structure of MgC2 is found to be T-shaped with a highly ionic bond between the metal atom and the C2 unit, analogous to other dicarbides containing electropositive elements. A two-temperature excitation model of the MgC2 emission lines observed in IRC+10216 yields a very low rotational temperature of 6 ± 1 K, a kinetic temperature of 22 ± 13 K, and a column density of (1.0 ± 0.3) × 1012 cm−2. The abundance of MgC2 relative to the magnesium-carbon chains MgCCH, MgC4H, and MgC6H is 1:2:22:20 and provides a new constraint on the sequential radiative association-dissociative recombination mechanisms implicated in the production of metal-bearing molecules in circumstellar environments.