Theoretical spectral properties of PAHs: towards a detailed model of their photophysics in the ISM

Abstract

In the framework of density functional theory (DFT) we computed the spectral properties of a total of about 20 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in different charge states. From our complete atlas of PAHs, ranging in size from naphthalene (C10H8) to dicoronylene (C48H20), we present here a sample of results concerning both ground–state and excited–state properties. Our theoretical results are in reasonable agreement with the available experimental data. This makes them particularly precious when the latter are not easily obtainable, as is often the case for the highly reactive radicals and ions of such species. In another paper (Mulas et al., same volume) we show that our theoretical results can be reliably used to model the behaviour of these molecules in astrophysical environments.