Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 729, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/729/2/126
Keywords
astrochemistry; circumstellar matter; infrared: stars; stars: chemically peculiar; white dwarfs
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Funding
- NASA [1407, GO 50212]
- Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) [AYA-2007-64748]
- Robert A. Welch Foundation of Houston, Texas [F-634]
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The hydrogen-poor, helium-rich, and carbon-rich character of the gas around R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars has been suggested to be a site for formation of C-60 molecules. This suggestion is not supported by observations reported here showing that infrared transitions of C-60 are not seen in a large sample of RCB stars observed with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The infrared C-60 transitions are seen, however, in emission and blended with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) features in spectra of DY Cen and possibly also of V854 Cen, the two least hydrogen-deficient (hydrogen deficiency of only similar to 10-100) RCB stars. The speculation is offered that C-60 (and the PAHs) in the moderately H-deficient circumstellar envelopes may be formed by the decomposition of hydrogenated amorphous carbon but fullerene formation is inefficient in the highly H-deficient environments of most RCBs.
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