New Frontiers in Cosmic Carbon

Since the mid 1980s, ubiquitous infrared emission in our galaxy and others has led to the conclusion that as much as 25% of interstellar carbon is sequestered in large aromatic species. If true, the physics and chemistry along the cycle of star- and planet-formation may be dominated by these molecules, as they would serve not only as reservoirs of reactive carbon, but as charge balance carriers for entire molecular clouds, catalytic surfaces of molecular hydrogen formation, and as the seeds of interstellar dust. In this talk, I will discuss recent advances in our studies of aromatic chemistry, enabled by novel applications of Bayesian analysis and matched filtering. I will present the first detections of individual large aromatic species in space, confirming a 30+ year hypothesis, describe its impact on our current understanding of the evolution of cosmic carbon, and look forward at where this new window on aromatic chemistry can take us.