Stars on the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) produce dust in their circumstellar shells. The nature of the dust-forming environment is influenced by the evolution of the stars, in terms of both chemistry and density, leading to an evolution in the nature of the dust that is produced. Carbon-rich AGB stars are known to produce silicon carbide (SiC). Furthermore, observations of the ∼11µm SiC feature show that the spectral features change in a sequence that correlates with stellar evolution. We present new infrared spectra of amorphous SiC and show that the ∼ 9µm feature seen in both emission and absorption, and correlated with trends in the ∼11µm feature, may be due to either amorphous SiC or to nano-crystalline diamond with a high proportion of Si substituting for C. Furthermore, we identify SiC absorption in three ISO spectra of extreme carbon stars, in addition to the four presented by Speck et al. (1997). An accurate description of the sequence in the IR spectra of carbon stars requires accounting for both SiC emission and absorption features. This level of detail is needed to infer the role of dust in evolution of carbon stars. Previous attempts to find a sequence in the infrared spectra of carbon stars considered SiC emission features, while neglecting SiC absorption features, leading to an interpretation of the sequence inadequately describes the role of dust. We show that the evolutionary sequence in carbon star spectra is consistent with a grain size evolution, such that dust grains get progressively smaller as the star evolves. The evolution of the grain sizes provides a natural explanation for the shift of the ∼11µm SiC feature in emission and in absorption. Further evidence for this scenario is seen in both post-AGB star spectra and in meteoritic studies of presolar grains.

Infrared carbon stars without visible counterparts are generally known as extreme carbon stars. We have selected a subset of these stars with absorption features in the 10-13 µm range, which has been tentatively attributed to silicon carbide (SiC). We add three new objects meeting these criterion to the seven previously known, bringing our total sample to ten sources. We also present the result of radiative transfer modeling for these stars, comparing these results to those of previous studies. In order to constrain model parameters, we use published mass-loss rates, expansion velocities and theoretical dust condensation models to determine the dust condensation temperature. These show that the inner dust temperatures of the dust shells for these sources are significantly higher than previously assumed. This also implies that the dominant dust species should be graphite instead of amorphous carbon. In combination with the higher condensation temperature we show that this results in a much higher acceleration of the dust grains than would be expected from previous work. Our model results suggest that the very optically thick stage of evolution does not coincide with the timescales for the superwind, but rather, that this is a very short-lived phase. Additionally, we compare model and observational parameters in an attempt to find any correlations. Finally, we show that the spectrum of one source, IRAS 17534−3030, strongly implies that the 10-13 µm feature is due to a solid state rather than a molecular species.

We use mid-infrared spectroscopy of unobscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to reveal their native dusty environments. We concentrate on Seyfert 1 galaxies, observing a sample of 31 with the Infrared Spectrograph aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, and compare them with 21 higher-luminosity quasar counterparts. Silicate dust reprocessing dominates the mid-infrared spectra, and we generally measure the 10 and 18µm spectral features weakly in emission in these galaxies. The strengths of the two silicate features together are sensitive to the dust distribution. We present numerical radiative transfer calculations that distinguish between clumpy and smooth geometries, which are applicable to any central heating source, including stars as well as AGNs. In the observations, we detect the obscuring "torus" of unified AGN schemes, modeling it as compact and clumpy. We also determine that star formation increases with AGN luminosity, although the proportion of the galaxies' bolometric luminosity attributable to stars decreases with AGN luminosity.

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