Back to Search
Start Over
Modelling the evolution of PAH abundance in galaxies
- Source :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 489:5218-5224
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2019.
-
Abstract
- We investigate the evolution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) abundance in a galaxy, which is a crucial step to understand the evolution of bright emission features in the mid-infrared range. We calculate the evolution of dust grain size distribution in a manner consistent with the physical conditions of the interstellar medium by post-processing our previous hydrodynamical simulation of an isolated disc galaxy. We also differentiate between aromatic and non-aromatic grains for carbonaceous dust species and explicitly considered the aromatization process. As a consequence, our model explains the metallicity dependence of PAH abundances in nearby galaxies well. The PAH abundance increase is driven particularly by the interplay between shattering and accretion (dust growth). The fast aromatization guarantees that the small carbonaceous grains trace PAHs very well. Since shattering and accretion are sensitive to the dust abundance, we predict that the PAH-to-dust abundance ratio increases as the metallicity increases. This is consistent with the observation data of nearby galaxies.<br />Comment: Accepted by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2019/9/5) 7 pages 4 figures
- Subjects :
- 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Metallicity
Extinction (astronomy)
FOS: Physical sciences
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics
01 natural sciences
Abundance (ecology)
0103 physical sciences
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Physics
chemistry.chemical_classification
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Accretion (astrophysics)
Galaxy
Interstellar medium
chemistry
Space and Planetary Science
Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Particle-size distribution
Astrophysics::Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 13652966 and 00358711
- Volume :
- 489
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....9068f5c2b8254b383dc7aabd9f35138b
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2532