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Abstract. The so-called "strong" Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) hypothesis postulates that isolated PAHs, which are thought to be the carriers of the Unidentified Infrared Bands, ought to be also responsible for a large number of Diffuse Interstellar Bands (DIBs). In this framework, the spectral profile of such DIBs should be due to unresolved rotational structure of vibronic absorption bands, the rotation of the molecule being by and large governed by the interaction with the interstellar radiation field. In this paper we quantitatively test the above hypothesis against the observational constraint of DIBs profile invariance, by using Monte-Carlo methods to model the photophysics of a prototypical interstellar PAH, namely the ovalene cation (C 32 H + 14 ). Our results show that the predicted rotational band profiles are remarkably insensitive to both the ambient conditions and the assumed values of some poorly known parameters. The present model therefore offers a quantitative link between any given PAH and the observed DIB profiles, providing a valuable tool for molecular identification.

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Abstract. In Paper I (Malloci et al. 2003) we proved the profile invariance of the first permitted electronic transition of the typical Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon cation C 32 H 14 + as a first necessary check for the "strong" PAHs hypothesis. In this paper we derive a quantitative relation between the intensities of the former band, which ought to be observable in absorption in the visible range, and those of the far-IR bands, which are predicted by the PAH model to be simultaneously present in emission. Contrary to the mid-IR bands, collectively known as "Unidentified Infrared Bands" (UIBs), which do not discriminate specific molecules, the far IR, skeletal bands can be expected to be a fingerprint of each single species. This fact provides a number of independent constraints which must be simultaneously fulfilled for a successful PAH identification. Our approach thus offers a powerful criterion for the identification of specific PAHs, both in the presently available ISO data and in those of the forthcoming SIRTF and Herschel missions. As an interesting by-product, we quantitatively evaluate the impact of isotopic substitutions ( 13 C→ 12 C and D →H) on the resulting infrared emission bands.

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