The Lifecycle and Emission Properties of PAHs in Cosmological Hydrodynamic Galaxy Formation Simulations
The model tracks PAH evolution from high redshift (z=6) to today by simulating galaxy growth and dust grain shattering in the interstellar medium. It shows that as galaxies become more diffuse, PAH production increases, linking metallicity to PAH abundance. This suggests grain-grain shattering is a primary driver of cosmic PAH evolution.