The Red Rectangle - A possible case of visible luminescence from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Details The Red Rectangle - A possible case of visible luminescence from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons The Red Rectangle - A possible case of visible luminescence from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Dec 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986a%26a...170...91d&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 170, no. 1, Dec. 1986, p. 91-96.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

88

Aromatic Compounds, Cyclic Hydrocarbons, Interstellar Matter, Photoluminescence, Reflection Nebulae, Fluorescence, Phosphorescence, Vibrational Spectra

Scientific paper

An explanation for the broad band emission in the red part of the spectrum detected in the nebula surrounding the star HD 44179, i.e., the Red Rectangle, is proposed. This emission could be due to the visible luminescence of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon molecules (PAHs) as the result of the absorption of the ultraviolet and visible light from the central star. The strong infrared emission features present in this source have already been identified with these PAHs. It is shown that fluorescence and (or) phosphorescence of these highly vibrationally excited isolated molecules resemble the observed spectrum although a precise identification is at the present time impossible due to the lack of laboratory spectra of molecules in such particular environments. The total luminosity of the red hump can be accounted for by using a reasonable estimate of the abundance of the PAHs and quantum yields for the luminescence. From an observational point of view, attention should be focused on the search for more examples of such a diffuse red emission in objects where the PAHs have been detected through their infrared emission features.

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