Bibcode
DOI
Iglesias-Groth, Susana
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 632, Issue 1, pp. L25-L28.
Advertised on:
10
2005
Journal
Citations
31
Refereed citations
26
Description
We study the rotation rates and electric dipole emission of hydrogenated
icosahedral fullerenes (single and multishell) in various phases of the
interstellar medium. Using the formalism of Draine & Lazarian for
the rotational dynamics of these molecules in various astrophysical
environments, we find effective rotation rates in the range 1-65 GHz
with a trend toward lower rotational frequency as the radius of the
molecule increases. Owing to the moderately polar nature of the CH bond,
hydrogenated fullerenes (fulleranes) are expected to have a net dipole
moment and produce electric dipole radiation. Adopting the same size
distribution proposed for fullerenes in the study of the UV extinction
bump (2175 Å), we predict the dipole electric emission of mixtures
of fulleranes for various levels of hydrogenation. We find that these
molecules could be the carriers of the anomalous microwave emission
recently detected by Watson et al. in the Perseus molecular complex.