Probing Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Photodissociation Regions

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a large class of complex organic molecules made of carbon and hydrogen that are ubiquitous throughout the space, accounting for up to 15% of the cosmic carbon. These molecules are made of fused benzene rings resulting in a honeycomb structure with hydrogen atoms at the edges of the molecule. They are typically observed through their characteristic infrared emission bands caused by fluorescence of PAHs upon absorbing UV photons. Emission from PAHs originate in the regions of the interstellar medium called Photodissociation Regions (PDRs) – regions where photons > 13.6 eV are absent. PDRs are characterized by their physical conditions such as gas density and the radiation field strength which are not uniform throughout the PDR. These variations in the physical conditions gets reflected in the properties of PAHs such as size, charge state and molecular structure. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Els Peeters

Student:

Partner:

Leiden University

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

Western University

Program: