Related papers: Carbon accretion and desorption by interstellar po…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) produce characteristic infrared emission bands that have been observed in a wide range of astrophysical environments, where carbonaceous material is subjected to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Although…
The infrared (IR) emission from interstellar dust in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is modelled using a mixture of amorphous silicate and carbonaceous grains, including a population of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules. (1)…
Broad infrared emission features (e.g., at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, and 11.3 microns) from the gas phase interstellar medium have long been attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). A significant portion (10%-20%) of the Milky Way's…
[Abridged] The ionization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), by ultraviolet (UV) photons from massive stars is expected to account for a large fraction of the heating of neutral gas in galaxies. Evaluation of this proposal,…
Dimerization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is an important, yet poorly understood, step in the on-surface synthesis of graphene (nanoribbon), soot formation, and growth of carbonaceous dust grains in the interstellar medium…
In the interstellar medium (ISM), polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are believed to be an important carbon reservoir, accounting for up to a quarter of all interstellar carbon in our galaxy. This makes the investigation of their…
Star formation depends critically on cooling mechanisms in the interstellar medium (ISM); however, thermal properties of gas in galaxies at the peak epoch of star formation (z ~ 2) remain poorly understood. A limiting factor in…
Up to now, no laboratory-based study has investigated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) species as potential carriers of both the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) and the 2175 A UV bump. We examined the proposed correlation between…
We present a new method to accurately describe the ionization fraction and the size distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) within astrophysical sources. To this purpose, we have computed the mid-infrared emission spectra of…
We model the production of OH+, H2O+, and H3O+ in interstellar clouds, using a steady state photodissociation region code that treats the freeze-out of gas species, grain surface chemistry, and desorption of ices from grains. The code…
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widely accepted as the carriers of the Aromatic Infrared Bands (AIBs), but an unambiguous identification of any specific interstellar PAH is still missing. For polar PAHs, pure rotational…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most ubiquitous compounds in the universe, accounting for up to ~25% of all interstellar carbon. Since most unsubstituted PAHs do not possess permanent dipole moments, they are invisible…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission has long been proposed to be a potential star formation rate indicator, as it arises from the photodissociation region bordering the Str\"omgren sphere of young, massive stars. We apply a…
C$_2$H is a representative hydrocarbon that is abundant and ubiquitous in the interstellar medium (ISM). To study its chemical properties, we present Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations of the C$_2$H $N=3-2$ and HC$_3$N $J=30-29$…
Observationally, the interstellar gas-phase abundance of deuterium (D) is considerably depleted and the missing D atoms are often postulated to have been locked up into carbonaceous solids and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)…
The cosmic-ray ionization rate ($\zeta$, s$^{-1}$) plays an important role in the interstellar medium. It controls ion-molecular chemistry and provides a source of heating. Here we perform a grid of calculations using the spectral synthesis…
The physical and chemical conditions in photodissociation regions (PDRs) are largely determined by the influence of far ultraviolet radiation. Far-UV photons can efficiently dissociate molecular hydrogen, a process that must be balanced at…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) play a key role in the chemical and hydrodynamical evolution of the atmospheres of exoplanets and planet-forming discs. If they can survive the planet formation process, PAHs are likely to be involved…
The interaction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photons triggers the emission of the well-known aromatic infrared bands (AIBs) but other mechanisms such as fragmentation can be involved in this…
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been proposed as potential carriers of the unidentified infrared bands (UIRs) and the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). PAHs are not likely to form by gas-phase or solid-state interstellar…