Quenching of vibrational excitations in resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra of liquid acetic acid is observed. At the oxygen core resonance associated with localized excitations at the O-H bond, the spectra lack the typical progressionof vibrational excitations observed in RIXS spectra of comparable systems. We interpret this phenomenon as due to strong rehybridization of the unoccupied molecular orbitals as a result of hydrogen bonding. This allows us to address the molecular structure of the liquid, and to determine a lower limit for the average molecular chain length.
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