Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons destruction in star-forming regions across 42 nearby galaxies

Fuente: arXiv

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Egorov, Oleg V., Leroy, Adam K., Sandstrom, Karin, Kreckel, Kathryn, Baron, Dalya, Belfiore, Francesco, Chown, Ryan, Sutter, Jessica, Boquien, Médéric, Saguer, Mar Canal i, Congiu, Enrico, Dale, Daniel A., Egorova, Evgeniya, Huber, Michael, Li, Jing, Williams, Thomas G., Chastenet, Jérémy, Chiang, I-Da, Gerasimov, Ivan, Hassani, Hamid, Kim, Hwihyun, Koziol, Hannah, Lee, Janice C., McClain, Rebecca L., Delgado, José Eduardo Méndez, Pan, Hsi-An, Pathak, Debosmita, Rosolowsky, Erik, Sarbadhicary, Sumit K., Schinnerer, Eva, Thilker, David, Ubeda, Leonardo, Weinbeck, Tony
Format:	Preprint
Published:	2025
Subjects:	Astrophysics of Galaxies
Online Access:	Acceder al recurso
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_version_	1866914162627575808
author	Egorov, Oleg V. Leroy, Adam K. Sandstrom, Karin Kreckel, Kathryn Baron, Dalya Belfiore, Francesco Chown, Ryan Sutter, Jessica Boquien, Médéric Saguer, Mar Canal i Congiu, Enrico Dale, Daniel A. Egorova, Evgeniya Huber, Michael Li, Jing Williams, Thomas G. Chastenet, Jérémy Chiang, I-Da Gerasimov, Ivan Hassani, Hamid Kim, Hwihyun Koziol, Hannah Lee, Janice C. McClain, Rebecca L. Delgado, José Eduardo Méndez Pan, Hsi-An Pathak, Debosmita Rosolowsky, Erik Sarbadhicary, Sumit K. Schinnerer, Eva Thilker, David Ubeda, Leonardo Weinbeck, Tony
author_facet	Egorov, Oleg V. Leroy, Adam K. Sandstrom, Karin Kreckel, Kathryn Baron, Dalya Belfiore, Francesco Chown, Ryan Sutter, Jessica Boquien, Médéric Saguer, Mar Canal i Congiu, Enrico Dale, Daniel A. Egorova, Evgeniya Huber, Michael Li, Jing Williams, Thomas G. Chastenet, Jérémy Chiang, I-Da Gerasimov, Ivan Hassani, Hamid Kim, Hwihyun Koziol, Hannah Lee, Janice C. McClain, Rebecca L. Delgado, José Eduardo Méndez Pan, Hsi-An Pathak, Debosmita Rosolowsky, Erik Sarbadhicary, Sumit K. Schinnerer, Eva Thilker, David Ubeda, Leonardo Weinbeck, Tony
contents	Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread in the interstellar medium (ISM) of Solar metallicity galaxies, where they play a critical role in ISM heating, cooling, and reprocessing stellar radiation. The PAH fraction, the abundance of PAHs relative to total dust mass, is a key parameter in ISM physics. Using JWST and MUSE observations of 42 galaxies from the PHANGS survey, we analyze the PAH fraction in over 17 000 H II regions spanning a gas-phase oxygen abundance of 12+log(O/H) = 8.0-8.8 (Z ~ 0.2-1.3 Zsun), and ~400 isolated supernova remnants (SNRs). We find a significantly lower PAH fraction toward H II regions compared to a reference sample of diffuse ISM areas at matched metallicity. At 12+log(O/H) > 8.2, the PAH fraction toward H II regions is strongly anti-correlated with the local ionization parameter, suggesting that PAH destruction is correlated with ionized gas and/or hydrogen-ionizing UV radiation. At lower metallicities, the PAH fraction declines steeply in both H II regions and the diffuse ISM, likely reflecting less efficient PAH formation in metal-poor environments. Carefully isolating dust emission from the vicinity of optically-identified supernova remnants, we see evidence for selective PAH destruction from measurements of lower PAH fractions, which is, however, indistinguishable at ~50 pc scales. Overall, our results point to ionizing radiation as the dominant agent of PAH destruction within H II regions, with metallicity playing a key role in their global abundance in galaxies.
format	Preprint
id	arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_13845
institution	arXiv
publishDate	2025
record_format	arxiv
spellingShingle	Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons destruction in star-forming regions across 42 nearby galaxies Egorov, Oleg V. Leroy, Adam K. Sandstrom, Karin Kreckel, Kathryn Baron, Dalya Belfiore, Francesco Chown, Ryan Sutter, Jessica Boquien, Médéric Saguer, Mar Canal i Congiu, Enrico Dale, Daniel A. Egorova, Evgeniya Huber, Michael Li, Jing Williams, Thomas G. Chastenet, Jérémy Chiang, I-Da Gerasimov, Ivan Hassani, Hamid Kim, Hwihyun Koziol, Hannah Lee, Janice C. McClain, Rebecca L. Delgado, José Eduardo Méndez Pan, Hsi-An Pathak, Debosmita Rosolowsky, Erik Sarbadhicary, Sumit K. Schinnerer, Eva Thilker, David Ubeda, Leonardo Weinbeck, Tony Astrophysics of Galaxies Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread in the interstellar medium (ISM) of Solar metallicity galaxies, where they play a critical role in ISM heating, cooling, and reprocessing stellar radiation. The PAH fraction, the abundance of PAHs relative to total dust mass, is a key parameter in ISM physics. Using JWST and MUSE observations of 42 galaxies from the PHANGS survey, we analyze the PAH fraction in over 17 000 H II regions spanning a gas-phase oxygen abundance of 12+log(O/H) = 8.0-8.8 (Z ~ 0.2-1.3 Zsun), and ~400 isolated supernova remnants (SNRs). We find a significantly lower PAH fraction toward H II regions compared to a reference sample of diffuse ISM areas at matched metallicity. At 12+log(O/H) > 8.2, the PAH fraction toward H II regions is strongly anti-correlated with the local ionization parameter, suggesting that PAH destruction is correlated with ionized gas and/or hydrogen-ionizing UV radiation. At lower metallicities, the PAH fraction declines steeply in both H II regions and the diffuse ISM, likely reflecting less efficient PAH formation in metal-poor environments. Carefully isolating dust emission from the vicinity of optically-identified supernova remnants, we see evidence for selective PAH destruction from measurements of lower PAH fractions, which is, however, indistinguishable at ~50 pc scales. Overall, our results point to ionizing radiation as the dominant agent of PAH destruction within H II regions, with metallicity playing a key role in their global abundance in galaxies.
title	Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons destruction in star-forming regions across 42 nearby galaxies
topic	Astrophysics of Galaxies
url	https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13845