Search for Interstellar Water in the Translucent Molecular Cloud Toward HD 154368

We report an upper limit of 9 x 10(exp 12)/sq cm on the column density of water in the translucent cloud along the line of sight toward HD 154368. This result is based on a search for the C-X band of water near 1240 A carried out using the Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) of the Hubble Space Telescope. Our observational limit on the water abundance, together with detailed chemical models of translucent clouds and previous measurements of OH along the line of sight, constrains the branching ratio in the dissociative recombination of H3O(+) to form water. We find at the 3 sigma level that no more than 30% of dissociative recombinations of H3O(+) can lead to H2O. The observed spectrum also yielded high-resolution observations of the Mg II doublet at 1239.9 A and 1240.4 A, allowing the velocity structure of the dominant ionization state of magnesium to be studied along the line of sight. The Mg II spectrum is consistent with GHRS observations at lower spectral resolution that were obtained previously but allow an additional velocity component to be identified.