Statistics – Applications
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011iaus..280p.257m&link_type=abstract
The Molecular Universe, Posters from the proceedings of the 280th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union held in Tole
Statistics
Applications
Scientific paper
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are an important and ubiquitous component of the Interstellar Medium (ISM) of galaxies. Interstellar PAHs are apparently able to withstand the rigors of the harsh environment of the ISM for some some 100 million years and thus are resilient against processing by UV and X-ray photons and supernova shock waves. PAHs in space are mainly studied through their characteristic emission bands, due to infrared fluorescence following the absorption of UV photons. This is the reason why the photophysics of PAHs in space has been extensively investigated. On the other hand, PAHs are also strongly affected by collisional processes, i.e. bombardment by high-velocity ions and electrons, arising from interstellar shocks, hot gas and cosmic rays. However, very little was known about the physics of the interaction between PAHs and high energy particles, especially in terms of PAH damage and destruction. This lack of information had made the interpretation of PAH observations difficult in regions subjected to such processes. Our research aims to fill this key gap in our understanding of the physics behind collisional processing of PAHs and to clarify how this affects the PAH evolution in the astrophysical context. We first describe the models we have developed, that take into account the molecular nature of the target PAH and allow for the first time a quantitative description of the collisional processing of PAH molecules by ions and electrons with energies between 10 eV and 10 keV (in shocks and hot gas) and between 5 MeV and 10 GeV (in cosmic rays). Specific models were needed because PAHs are molecules and not small solid fragments, thus the classical approach from solid state physics cannot be applied. We then show the applications of our models to observations, estimating the lifetime of PAHs against collisional processing in specific objects. We discuss the astrophysical implications of our findings on the considered sample, which includes very different objects such as supernova remnants, normal/starburst galaxies and galaxy clusters.
Jones Allan
Micelotta Elisabetta
Tielens Alexander
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