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On buckyonions as a carrier of the 2175 Å interstellar extinction feature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2008

Juhua Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, China email: jhchen@hunnu.edu.cn, wyj@hunnu.edu.cn Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA email: limo@missouri.edu, lia@missouri.edu
Moping Li
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA email: limo@missouri.edu, lia@missouri.edu
Aigen Li
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA email: limo@missouri.edu, lia@missouri.edu
Yongjiu Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, China email: jhchen@hunnu.edu.cn, wyj@hunnu.edu.cn
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Abstract

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In recent years buckyonions have been suggested as a carrier of the 2175 Å interstellar extinction feature, based on the close similarity between the electronic transition spectra of buckyonions and the 2175 Å interstellar extinction feature. We examine this hypothesis by calculating the interstellar extinction with buckyonions as a dust component. It is found that dust models containing buckyonions (in addition to amorphous silicates, PAHs, graphite or amorphous carbon) can closely reproduce the observed interstellar extinction curve. However, a more severe challenge to the buckyonion hypothesis is provided by the non-detection of the ~7–8 μm C–H stretching bands expected from buckyonions in the diffuse interstellar medium. This will allow us to place an upper limit on the abundance of buckyonions.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

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