Lack of PAH emission toward low-mass embedded young stellar objects*

Aims. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been detected toward molecular clouds and some young stars with disks, but have not yet been associated with embedded young stars. We present a sensitive mid-infrared spectroscopic survey of PAH features toward a sample of low-mass embedded young stellar objects (YSOs). The aim is to put constraints on the PAH abundance in the embedded phase of star formation using radiative transfer modeling.