Composite Grains: Carriers of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands

Abstract

The dust grains flowing out of the stars are most likely non-spherical and inhomogeneous; viz. porous, fluffy and composites of many very small particles glued together. We calculate the scattering, absorption and extinction efficiencies of such composite grains. The composite grains consist of host silicate spheroid and inclusions of PAHs. We study the extinction as a function of the volume fraction of the inclusions. In particular, we study the variation in the absorption peak, at the wavelength ‘4430Å’ with the volume fraction of the PAH inclusions. We present the composite grain models and discuss the results.