Related papers: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Exoplanet Atmo…
To date, the ability for observers to reveal the composition or thermal structure of an exoplanet's atmosphere has rested on two techniques: high-contrast direct imaging and time-series observations of transiting exoplanets. The former is…
While high-resolution cross-correlation spectroscopy (HRCCS) techniques have proven effective at characterizing the atmospheres of transiting and non-transiting hot Jupiters, the limitations of these techniques are not well understood. We…
A combined mid-IR spectrum of five colliding-wind, massive, dust-producing Population I Wolf-Rayet (WR) binaries shows a wealth of absorption and emission details coming from the circumstellar dust envelopes, as well as from the…
The formation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the circumstellar outflows of evolved stars is reviewed, with an emphasis on carbon stars on the Asymptotic Giant Branch. Evidence for PAHs present in their winds is provided by…
The primary scientific objective of this Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) Science Case Development Document (SCDD) is to measure planetary rotation rates of transiting exoplanets to determine the structure, composition, circulation, and…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and fullerenes play a major role in the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium. Based on a number of recent experimental and theoretical investigations we developed a model in which PAHs are…
As the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere, Titan is a compelling and enigmatic world containing a complex organic haze. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules are believed to play an essential role in the…
I summarize the results of two recent studies, based on ISO and Spitzer mid-IR spectra of galaxies and Galactic regions, aimed at understanding the origins of the variations of the aromatic features among and inside galaxies. I show that…
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are key diagnostics of the physical conditions in the interstellar medium and are widely used to trace star formation in the mid-infrared (mid-IR). The relative strengths of mid-IR PAH emission…
The spectroscopic characterization of terrestrial exoplanets will be made possible for the first time with JWST. One challenge to characterizing such planets is that it is not known a priori whether they possess optically thick atmospheres…
The distinctive set of infrared (IR) emission bands at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.3{\mu}m are ubiquitously seen in a wide variety of astrophysical environments. They are generally attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)…
Infrared (IR) absorption spectra of individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) containing methyl (-CH3), methylene (>CH2), or diamond-like *CH groups and IR spectra of mixtures of methylated and hydrogenated PAHs prepared by gas…
The mid-infrared spectrum of star-forming, high metallicity galaxies is dominated by emission features from aromatic and aliphatic bonds in small carbonaceous dust grains, often referred to as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In…
The conventional observables to identify a habitable or inhabited environment in exoplanets, such as an ocean glint or abundant atmospheric O$_2$, will be challenging to detect with present or upcoming observatories. Here we suggest a new…
We explore indirect methods to detect Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in gas-rich, absorption-selected galaxies at high redshift. We look at the optical VLT/X-shooter observations of an intervening, extremely strong damped…
Most of the molecules detected thus far in exoplanet atmospheres, such as water and CO, are present for a large range of pressures and temperatures. In contrast, metal hydrides exist in much more specific regimes of parameter space, and so…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are responsible for strong mid-IR emission features near star-forming regions. It is well known that low-metallicity environments exhibit weaker PAH emission, but it is not clear how the metallicity…
Two key questions of the chemistry of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the interstellar medium (ISM) are addressed: i) the way carbon is returned from PAHs to the interstellar gas after the very efficient accretion of C+ ions onto…
We study the polarized infrared emission by Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), when anisotropically illuminated by UV photons. PAH molecules are modeled as planar disks with in-plane and out-of-plane vibrational dipoles. As first…
We study the effect of anisotropic radiation illumination on the alignment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and report that cross-sectional mechanism of alignment earlier considered in terms of gas-grain interactions can also be…