The aromatic Universe

Abstract

The rich molecular structures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- essentially planar flakes of fused benzene rings -- and their fullerene cousins are revealed through their vibrational and electronic spectra.

arXiv commentThe following article appeared in Physics Today, November 2018, page 38

References in corpus (8)

• The rich 6 to 9 um spectrum of interstellar PAHs
• Detection of the Aromatic Molecule Benzonitrile ($c$-C${}_6$H${}_5$CN) in the Interstellar Medium
• Formation of buckminsterfullerene (C60) in interstellar space
• The profiles of the 3 to 12 $\mu$m PAH features
• Laboratory formation of fullerenes from PAHs: Top-down interstellar chemistry
• Carbon-rich dust past the asymptotic giant branch: aliphatics, aromatics, and fullerenes in the Magellanic Clouds
• The turbulent formation of stars
• Spatial distribution and interpretation of the 3.3 \mum PAH emission band of the Red Rectangle

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Buckyball-metal complexes as promising carriers of astronomical unidentified infrared emission bands
• Intermediate-size fullerenes as degradation products of interstellar PAHs
• Infrared spectra of neutral polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by machine learning
• Photofragmentation of Corannulene (C20H10) and Sumanene (C21H12) cations in gas phase and its Astrophysical implications
• Evolution of Fullerenes in Circumstellar Envelopes by Carbon Condensation: Insights from Reactive Molecular Dynamics Simulations
• Laboratory formation and photo-chemistry of fullerene/anthracene cluster cations
• Interrelations between Astrochemistry and Galactic Dynamics