Destruction and survival of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in active galaxies

Details Destruction and survival of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in active galaxies Destruction and survival of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in active galaxies

Oct 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992mnras.258..841v&link_type=abstract

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (ISSN 0035-8711), vol. 258, no. 4, p. 841-848.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

118

Active Galactic Nuclei, Aromatic Compounds, Hydrocarbons, Infrared Spectra, Interstellar Matter, Starburst Galaxies, Active Galaxies, Cyclic Compounds, Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation, Photodissociation, X Ray Sources

Scientific paper

Infrared spectra of dusty galactic environments often contain emission features attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, which can be considered to be very small grains or very large molecules. Although IR spectra of starburst galaxies almost always show these emission features, similar spectra of active galaxies are usually featureless. Even in those active galaxies that do exhibit PAH emission, the PAHs still appear to be eradicated from the nuclear region. This dichotomy suggests that PAHs are destroyed by the intense hard radiation field from an AGN. Laboratory experiments show that certain PAHs are, in fact, so effectively destroyed by individual EUV and X-ray photons that they cannot survive even at kiloparsec distances from active nuclei. Regions within active galaxies that do show PAH emission must therefore be shielded from the central X-ray source by a substantial column density of X-ray absorbing gas.

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