SPITZER'S VIEW ON AROMATIC AND ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBON EMISSION IN HERBIG Ae STARS

The chemistry of astronomical hydrocarbons, responsible for the well-known infrared emission features detected in a wide variety of targets, remains enigmatic. Here we focus on the group of young intermediate-mass Herbig Ae stars. We have analyzed the aliphatic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features in the infrared spectra of a sample of 53 Herbig Ae stars, obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. We confirm that the PAH-to-stellar luminosity ratio is higher in targets with a flared dust disk. However, a few sources with a flattened dust disk still show relatively strong PAH emission. Since PAH molecules trace the gas disk, this indicates that gas disks may still be flared, while the dust disk has settled due to grain growth. There are indications that the strength of the 11.3 μm feature also depends on dust disk structure, with flattened disks being less bright in this feature. We confirm that the