a b s t r a c tWe present experimental nitrogen-broadening coefficients derived from Voigt profiles of isotropic Raman Q-lines measured in the ν 2 band of acetylene (C 2 H 2 ) at 150 K and 298 K, and compare them to theoretical values obtained through calculations that were carried out specifically for this work. Namely, full classical calculations based on Gordon's approach, two kinds of semi-classical calculations based on Robert-Bonamy method as well as full quantum dynamical calculations were performed. All the computations employed exactly the same ab initio potential energy surface for the C 2 H 2 -N 2 system which is, to our knowledge, the most realistic, accurate and up-to-date one. The resulting calculated collisional half-widths are in good agreement with the experimental ones only for the full classical and quantum dynamical methods. In addition, we have performed similar calculations for IR absorption lines and compared the results to bibliographic values. Results obtained with the full classical method are again in good agreement with the available room temperature experimental data. The quantum dynamical closecoupling calculations are too time consuming to provide a complete set of values and therefore have been performed only for the R(0) line of C 2 H 2 . The broadening coefficient obtained for this line at 173 K and 297 K also compares quite well with the available experimental data. The traditional Robert-Bonamy semi-classical formalism, however, strongly overestimates the values of half-width for both Q-and R-lines. The refined semiclassical Robert-Bonamy method, first proposed for the calculations of pressure broadening coefficients of isotropic Raman lines, is also used for IR lines. By using this improved model that takes into account effects from line coupling, the calculated semi-classical widths are significantly reduced and closer to the measured ones.