CosmicPAH-IRDB: A Web Application for Including Anharmonicity in Simulated PAH Spectra for Astrophysics
Abstract
Advances in infrared observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) call for new tools to exploit the information associated with the Aromatic Infrared Bands (AIBs), now observed in both distant galaxies and the embryos of planetary systems. The AIBs contain information about their carriers as well as the excitation conditions, making them powerful probes of the chemical and physical conditions of their environments - if their spectral information can be decoded. While large datasets of theoretical infrared spectra are becoming available, efforts have primarily focused on the contribution of chemical diversity to the AIBs. However, the results remain limited by the impact of the excitation process on the band profiles. The AIB carriers, thought to be polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are hot molecules, which affects their spectral characteristics. We report here our approach to quantify these effects empirically by collecting IR spectra - both experimental and theoretical - and studying the evolution of band positions and widths with temperature. We present our methodology, including the development of the CosmicPAH-IRDB web application and spectral database, along with the associated cosmicPAHmfit multi-component spectral fitting tool. Our philosophy emphasizes open sharing, user-friendly access, and machine readability. The web application, tool and their update are accessible via the Cosmic PAH portal (https://cosmic-pah.irap.omp.eu/)
Related
- A Laboratory Spectroscopic, Photometric, and Polarimetric Dataset of Three Ordinary Chondrites, Including the Recent Maoming Fall: Grain-size and Simulated Space-weathering Effects
- AI's Capability in Assisting Scientific Research in Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology I: Literature Review
- AI's Capability in Assisting Scientific Research in Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology II: Project Planning and Proposal Evaluation
- Nonlinear Physics and Self-Organized Criticality in Astrophysics
- Promoting Green Computing in High Energy Physics and Astrophysics
BibTeX
@misc{bentzmann2026cosmicpahirdb,
title = {{CosmicPAH-IRDB: A Web Application for Including Anharmonicity in Simulated PAH Spectra for Astrophysics}},
author = {Louan de Bentzmann and Christine Joblin and Karine Demyk and Giacomo Mulas and Dominique Toublanc and Vincent Marty and Axel Pérignon and Mickaël Boiziot and Jean-Michel Glorian},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.01696},
eprint = {2609.01696},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01696},
note = {CC BY-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - CosmicPAH-IRDB: A Web Application for Including Anharmonicity in Simulated PAH Spectra for Astrophysics
AU - Louan de Bentzmann
AU - Christine Joblin
AU - Karine Demyk
AU - Giacomo Mulas
AU - Dominique Toublanc
AU - Vincent Marty
AU - Axel Pérignon
AU - Mickaël Boiziot
AU - Jean-Michel Glorian
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.01696
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01696
AB - Advances in infrared observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) call for new tools to exploit the information associated with the Aromatic Infrared Bands (AIBs), now observed in both distant galaxies and the embryos of planetary systems. The AIBs contain information about their carriers as well as the excitation conditions, making them powerful probes of the chemical and physical conditions of their environments - if their spectral information can be decoded. While large datasets of theoretical infrared spectra are becoming available, efforts have primarily focused on the contribution of chemical diversity to the AIBs. However, the results remain limited by the impact of the excitation process on the band profiles. The AIB carriers, thought to be polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are hot molecules, which affects their spectral characteristics. We report here our approach to quantify these effects empirically by collecting IR spectra - both experimental and theoretical - and studying the evolution of band positions and widths with temperature. We present our methodology, including the development of the CosmicPAH-IRDB web application and spectral database, along with the associated cosmicPAHmfit multi-component spectral fitting tool. Our philosophy emphasizes open sharing, user-friendly access, and machine readability. The web application, tool and their update are accessible via the Cosmic PAH portal (https://cosmic-pah.irap.omp.eu/)
ER -