Excitation of Unidentified Infrared Bands by H atom impact

TL;DR

This paper presents a model where hydrogen atom impacts excite Unidentified Infrared Bands in the interstellar medium, showing they are often more efficient than UV photons, with implications for interpreting astronomical observations.

Contribution

The paper introduces a quantitative model for UIB excitation by H atom impacts, highlighting their significance relative to UV absorption in space.

Findings

H impacts are generally more efficient than UV photons in exciting UIBs.

Only small grains significantly contribute to UIBs.

The model aligns well with recent astronomical observations.

Abstract

A model was developed for the excitation of the UIBs by H atom impacts in the Interstellar Medium. It builds upon the fact that, in the presence of far UV radiation and hydrocarbon grains, the hydrogen gas will be partially dissociated and the grain surface will be partially hydrogenated and partially covered with free carbon bonds. Under such a statistical equilibrium, H atoms from the gas will recombine with C atoms at the grain surface at some rate. At each recombination, the H atom deposits an energy of about 5 eV in the grain. Half of this is directly converted into vibrational excitation, always distributed in the same way among the most tightly coupled vibration modes of the grain. Absent frequent grain-grain collisions, the only outlet for this energy is IR reemission, part of it in the UIBs, provided the chemical structure of the grains is adequate, and the other part in the continuum. The partition only depends upon the grain size, all grains being assumed to have the same constitution. Only a fraction, about 0.25, of the grains (among the smallest ones) will contribute significantly to the UIBs. It is shown quantitatively that H impacts are generally more efficient excitation agents than UV absorption because of the overwhelming abundance of hydrogen relative to UV photons. Only very close to young bright stars is this no longer true because photon flux then largely exceeds H atom flux. Thus H impacts and FUV absorption are both necessary to understand the variety of observed UIB spectra. The model translates into a small number of equations enabling a quantitative comparison of its predictions with available astronomical observations, which have become exquisitely rich and accurate in the last two decades.