Related papers: Polarimetric Detection of Exoplanets Transiting T-…
Many of the directly imaged self-luminous gas giant exoplanets have been found to have cloudy atmospheres. Scattering of the emergent thermal radiation from these planets by the dust grains in their atmospheres should locally give rise to…
Light scattering by atmospheric dust particles is responsible for the polarization observed in some L dwarfs. Whether this polarization arises from an inhomogeneous distribution of dust across the disk or an oblate shape induced by rotation…
Young self-luminous giant exoplanets are expected to be oblate in shape owing to the high rotational speeds observed for some objects. Similar to the case of brown dwarfs, the thermal emission from these planets should be polarized by…
(Abridged). We report on the linear polarimetric observations in the Johnson I filter of 44 M6-L7.5 ultracool dwarfs (2800-1400 K). Eleven (10 L and 1 M) dwarfs appear to have significant linear polarization (P = 0.2-2.5%). We have compared…
Recent observation of linear optical polarization from brown dwarfs confirms the dust hypothesis in the atmospheres of brown dwarfs with effective temperature higher than 1400 K. The observed polarization could arise due to dust scattering…
Theoretical analysis and observational evidences indicate that a brown dwarf with effective temperature greater than 1400 K would have dust cloud in its atmosphere. In this letter, we show that dust scattering should yield polarized…
As the first and till date the only one multiple planet hosting dwarf star that is sufficiently cool to form condensate cloud in it atmosphere, Trappist-1 provides unique opportunity to test the efficiency of image polarimetry as a tool to…
Planets can emit polarized thermal radiation, just like brown dwarfs. We present calculated thermal polarization signals from hot exoplanets, using an advanced radiative transfer code that fully includes all orders of scattering by gaseous…
While there have been multiple observational programs aimed at detecting linear polarization of optical radiation emitted by ultracool dwarfs, there has been comparatively less rigorous theoretical analysis of the problem. The general…
We investigate the linear polarization in the light of extrasolar planetary systems that may arise as a result of an occultation of the star by a transiting planet. Such an occultation breaks any spherical symmetry over the projected…
The degree of polarization in L dwarfs of spectral types L0 to L6 resulting from dust scattering in a rotation-induced oblate photosphere is calculated. Assuming that forsterite is the main condensate, the atmospheric dust distribution is…
This work is a theoretical exploration for facilitating the interpretation of polarimetric observations in terms of cloudiness, rotational velocities and effective temperatures of brown dwarfs (BDs). An envelope of scatterers like…
It is becoming clear that the atmospheres of the young, self-luminous extrasolar giant planets imaged to date are dusty. Planets with dusty atmospheres may exhibit detectable amounts of linear polarization in the near-infrared, as has been…
Aims.Recent studies have detected linear polarization in L dwarfs in the optical I band. Theoretical models have been developed to explain this polarization. These models predict higher polarization at shorter wavelengths. We discuss the…
Planets reflect and linearly polarize the radiation that they receive from their host stars. The emergent polarization is sensitive to aspects of the planet atmosphere such as the gas composition and the occurrence of condensates and their…
Galactic dust emission is polarized at unexpectedly high levels, as revealed by Planck. The origin of the observed $\simeq 20\%$ polarization fractions can be identified by characterizing the properties of optical starlight polarization in…
Ultra-cool dwarfs of the L spectral type (Teff=1400-2200K) are known to have dusty atmospheres. Asymmetries of the dwarf surface may arise from rotationally-induced flattening and dust-cloud coverage, and may result in non-zero linear…
Detecting polarized light from self-luminous exoplanets has the potential to provide key information about rotation, surface gravity, cloud grain size, and cloud coverage. While field brown dwarfs with detected polarized emission are…
Recent atmospheric models for brown dwarfs suggest that the existence of clouds in substellar objects is not needed to reproduce their spectra, nor their rotationally-induced photometric variability, believed to be due to the heterogeneous…
Optical linear polarimetry of 8 ultra cool field dwarfs, with spectral types ranging from M9 to L8, is presented. The linear polarisation, P, of each dwarf we measured is P < 0.2%. Three dwarfs have polarisations compatible with zero, two…