Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Stan Zygmunt, Haiying He

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Physics and Astronomy

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-30-2026

Abstract

Knowing the molecular composition and abundance of dust surrounding planetary nebulae (PNe) would provide a better understanding of their formation and evolution. It has been recently discovered that PNe can contain both carbon-based (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and oxygen-based dust (silicates), whereas they were previously thought to contain primarily one or the other. The goal of this research is to use computational methods to compare the infrared (IR) spectra of various silicates to the observed spectra of oxygen-rich PNe to determine their specific molecular origins. We have focused our efforts on small (SiO2)n clusters (n=1-12). We have calculated the equilibrium structures and IR spectra of these clusters using density functional theory. The calculated IR spectra of the most stable clusters will be analyzed to reveal their dependence on the cluster size. This will be a first step towards a better understanding of the observed IR spectra of oxygen-rich PNe.

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