Related papers: Grain Alignment in OMC1 as Deduced from Observed L…
The dependence of polarization fraction $p$ on total intensity $I$ in polarized submillimeter emission measurements is typically parameterized as $p\propto I^{-\alpha}$ $(\alpha \leq 1)$, and used to infer dust grain alignment efficiency in…
A detailed study of interstellar polarization efficiency toward molecular clouds is used to attempt discrimination between grain alignment mechanisms in dense regions of the ISM. Background field stars are used to probe polarization…
Thermal dust continuum polarimetry is a powerful indirect probe of magnetic field geometry in dense molecular clouds while at the same time providing information on the alignment of dust grains with the magnetic field. The leading theory of…
The size of dust grains, $a$, is key to the physical and chemical processes in circumstellar disks, but observational constraints of grain size remain challenging. (Sub)millimeter continuum observations often show a percent-level…
The alignment of interstellar dust grains with magnetic fields provides a key method for measuring the strength and morphology of the fields. In turn, this provides a means to study the role of magnetic fields from diffuse gas to dense…
The azimuthal polarization patterns observed in some protoplanetary disks by ALMA at millimeter wavelength have raised doubts about their being produced by dust grains aligned with the magnetic field lines. These conclusions were based on…
An increasing number of young circumstellar disks show strikingly ordered (sub)millimeter polarization orientations along the minor axis, which is strong evidence for polarization due to scattering by ~0.1 mm sized grains. To test this…
We present new multicolor photo-polarimetry of stars behind the Southern Coalsack. Analyzed together with multiband polarization data from the literature, probing the Chamaeleon I, Musca, rho Opiuchus, R CrA and Taurus clouds, we show that…
The basic tenets of the alternative interpretation to be presented here are that the spectral profiles of the star light polarization peaks observed in the visible and near IR are a result of the optical properties of silicate grains in the…
Grain alignment by radiative torques (RATs) has been extensively studied for various environment conditions, including interstellar medium, dense molecular clouds, and accretion disks, thanks to significant progress in observational,…
Water ice has a strong spectral feature at a wavelength of approximately $3~\mu$m, which plays a vital role in our understanding of the icy universe. In this study, we investigate the scattering polarization of this water-ice feature. The…
ALMA observations revealed recently polarised radiation of several protoplanetary disks in the (sub-)millimetre wavelength range. Besides self-scattering of large particles, thermal emission by elongated grains is a potential source for the…
The edge diffraction of a homogeneously polarized light beam is studied theoretically based on the paraxial optics and Fresnel-Kirchhoff approximation, and the dependence of the diffracted beam pattern of the incident beam polarization is…
We present the first numerical radiative transfer simulation of multiple light scattering in dust configurations containing aligned non-spherical (spheroidal) dust grains. Such models are especially important if one wants to explain the…
Dust polarization induced by aligned grains is widely used to study magnetic fields in various environments, including star-forming regions. However, the question of to what optical depth grain alignment still exists in a dense molecular…
Extracting the grain size from the microscopic images is a rigorous task involving much human expertise and manual effort. While calculating the grain size, we will be utilizing a finite number of particles which may lead to an uncertainty…
Most astrophysical systems, e.g. stellar winds, the diffuse interstellar medium, molecular clouds, are magnetized with magnetic fields that influence almost all of their properties. One of the most informative techniques of magnetic field…
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…
There are indications that interstellar and interplanetary dust grains have an inhomogeneous and fluffy structure. We investigate different methods to describe light scattering by such composite particles. Both a model of layered particles…
Interstellar grain alignment studies are currently experiencing a renaissance due to the development of a new quantitative theory based on Radiative Alignment Torques (RAT). One of the distinguishing predictions of this theory is a…