The ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey: EDIBLES I. Project description, survey sample and quality assessment.

The carriers of the diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are largely unidentified molecules ubiquitously present in the interstellar medium (ISM). After decades of study, two strong and possibly three weak near-infrared DIBs have recently been attributed to the [Formula: see text] fullerene based on observational and laboratory measurements. There is great promise for the identification of the over 400 other known DIBs, as this result could provide chemical hints towards other possible carriers. In an effort to systematically study the properties of the DIB carriers, we have initiated a new large-scale observational survey: the ESO Diffuse Interstellar Bands Large Exploration Survey (EDIBLES). The main objective is to build on and extend existing DIB surveys to make a major step forward in characterising the physical and chemical conditions for a statistically significant sample of interstellar lines-of-sight, with the goal to reverse-engineer key molecular properties of the DIB carriers. EDIBLES is a filler Large Programme using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope at Paranal, Chile. It is designed to provide an observationally unbiased view of the presence and behaviour of the DIBs towards early-spectral type stars whose lines-of-sight probe the diffuse-to-translucent ISM. Such a complete dataset will provide a deep census of the atomic and molecular content, physical conditions, chemical abundances and elemental depletion levels for each sightline. Achieving these goals requires a homogeneous set of high-quality data in terms of resolution (R ~ 70 000 - 100 000), sensitivity (S/N up to 1000 per resolution element), and spectral coverage (305-1042 nm), as well as a large sample size (100+ sightlines). In this first paper the goals, objectives and methodology of the EDIBLES programme are described and an initial assessment of the data is provided.

Electronic absorption spectra of protonated pyrene and coronene in neon matrixes.

Protonated pyrene and coronene have been isolated in 6 K neon matrixes. The cations were produced in the reaction of the parent aromatics with protonated ethanol in a hot-cathode discharge source, mass selected, and co-deposited with neon. Three electronic transitions of the most stable isomer of protonated pyrene and four of protonated coronene were recorded. The strongest, S(1) ← S(0) transitions, are in the visible region, with onset at 487.5 nm for protonated pyrene and 695.6 nm for protonated coronene. The corresponding neutrals were also observed. The absorptions were assigned on the basis of ab initio coupled-cluster and time-dependent density functional theory calculations. The astrophysical relevance of protonated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is discussed.

TD-DFT calculations of electronic spectra of hydrogenated protonated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules: implications for the origin of the diffuse interstellar bands?

We report the application of time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) to the calculation of electronic spectra of hydrogenated protonated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules. The hydrogen atoms lie on the periphery of the PAH structure and those considered here may be written Hn-HPAH+, where n is even. It is found, in common with protonated PAH molecules, HPAH+, that some of the electronic transitions fall in the visible spectral region. The implications of the results are discussed in the context of the long-standing enigmatic astronomical problem of the diffuse interstellar absorption bands.

Small-scale-structure of the interstellar medium probed through diffuse band observations.

The carriers of the diffuse interstellar band spectrum represent an important baryonic component of the interstellar medium (ISM) and it is expected that their identification will contribute significantly to the understanding of the chemistry and physics of interstellar clouds. It is widely held that the carriers are linked to the presence of dust grains on account of the good correlation of their strengths with interstellar reddening, so they offer an important potential route to improving our understanding of the composition and chemistry of grains and grain surfaces. In addition to the challenge of making the spectral assignments, an important current question concerns the spatial distribution and physical state of interstellar material, with recent observational atomic and molecular line absorption studies suggesting that diffuse clouds are more 'clumpy' than previously thought. We describe here high signal-to-noise optical observations made at the Anglo-Australian Telescope using UCLES that were undertaken to investigate the spatial distribution of diffuse band carriers. We describe the first detection of 'small-scale-structure' in the diffuse band carrier distribution in the ISM, and comment on the possibilities that these data hold for contributing to the solution of the diffuse band problem and our understanding of the nature of small-scale-structure in the diffuse ISM.