Search for far-IR PAH bands with Herschel: modelling and observational approaches

¹ Université de Toulouse, UPS, CESR, 9 Av. colonel Roche, 31028 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
² CNRS, UMR 5187, 31028 Toulouse, France
³ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari – Astrochemistry Group, Strada 54, Loc. Poggio dei Pini, 09012 Capoterra ( CA), Italy
⁴ Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

Abstract

Herschel opens the possibility to detect the low-frequency vibrational bands of individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules and therefore to progress in our understanding of the nature of these species and the properties of the environments from which they emit. However, unless one individual molecule dominates the PAH family, this detection will not be straightforward and it is necessary to optimise the observational search with an educated guess of the band profiles and intensities. Such educated guess can be obtained from models that include a detailed description of the molecular properties (anharmonicity, rotation...) in the modelling of the cooling cascade of the emitting species. First results are expected soon from the observation of the Orion Bar as part of the HEXOS Herschel key program.