Related papers: Tracing Magnetic Fields with Aligned Grains
Polarization of starlight and thermal dust emission caused by aligned dust grains is a valuable tool to characterize magnetic fields (B-fields) and constrain dust properties. However, the physics of grain alignment is not fully understood.…
Dust polarization observational results are analyzed for the high-mass star formation region W51 from the largest parent cloud ($\sim$ 2~pc, JCMT) to the large-scale envelope ($\sim$ 0.5~pc, BIMA) down to the collapsing core e2 ($\sim$…
Cold, dense filaments, some appearing as infrared dark clouds, are the nurseries of stars. Tremendous progress in terms of temperature, density distribution and gas kinematics has been made in understanding the nature of these filaments.…
Context. Magnetic fields play a fundamental role in the dynamical evolution of protoplanetary disks, in particular via magnetically induced disk winds. The magnetic field structure at the disk surface is crucial for driving the disk winds;…
Variations in polarization efficiency (p/A) of interstellar grains as a function of environment place vital constraints on models for the mechanism of their alignment. We use polarimetry of background field stars to investigate alignment in…
In established theories of grain coarsening, grains disappear either by shrinking or by rotating as a rigid object to coalesce with an adjacent grain. Here we report a third mechanism for grain coarsening, in which a grain splits apart into…
Magnetic fields are widely observed in various astronomical contexts, yet much remains unknown about their significance across different systems and cosmic epochs. Our current knowledge of the evolution of magnetic fields is limited by…
Magnetic fields play an important role in the formation and evolution of a galaxy, but it is challenging to measure them by observation. Here we study the Seyfert galaxy NGC 3627's magnetic field orientations measured from the synchrotron…
Magnetic fields are everywhere in the Universe and in our everyday life and many processes are affected by their presence, generating a rich phenomenology that depends also on other possible external agents. We review here some results,…
We present 850 {\mu}m thermal dust polarization observations with a resolution of 14.4"(~ 0.13 pc) towards an infrared dark cloud G16.96+0.27 using JCMT/POL-2. The average magnetic field orientation, which roughly agrees with the…
The polarization of starlight and thermal dust emission from aligned non-spherical grains provides a powerful tool for tracing magnetic field morphologies and strengths in diffuse interstellar medium to star-forming regions, and…
The properties of polarization in scattered light by aligned ellipsoidal grains are investigated with the Fredholm integral equation method (FIM) and the T-matrix method (Tmat), and the results are applied to the observed circular…
It has long been recognized that magnetic fields play an important role in many astrophysical environments, yet the strength and structure of magnetic fields beyond our solar system have been at best only qualitatively constrained. The…
Optical and infrared continuum polarization from the interstellar medium is known to generally be due to irregular dust grains aligned with the magnetic field. This provides an important tool to probe the geometry and strength of those…
Magnetic fields, while ubiquitous in many astrophysical environments, are challenging to measure observationally. Based on the properties of anisotropy of eddies in magnetized turbulence, the Velocity Gradient Technique is a method…
Magnetic fields play a crucial role at all stages of the formation of low mass stars and planetary systems. In the final stages, in particular, they control the kinematics of in-falling gas from circumstellar discs, and the launching and…
Magnetic fields ($\textbf{B}$) are an important factor that controls the star formation process. The leading method to observe $\textbf{B}$ is using polarized thermal emission from dust grains aligned with $\textbf{B}$. However, in dense…
Paramagnetic alignment of fractal suprathermally rotating grains is discussed. It is shown that if the concentration of H$_{2}$formation sites is low and resurfacing is active, fractal structure of grains enhances their alignment. Studying…
Magnetic fields have been detected on stars across the H-R diagram and substellar objects either directly by their effect on the formation of spectral lines, or through the activity phenomena they power which can be observed across a large…
Magnetic helicity is an invariant of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) that encodes information on the topology of magnetic field lines. It has long been appreciated that magnetic topology is an important constraint for the evolution of…