Related papers: Relativistic Gas Drag on Dust Grains and Implicati…
Radiation-dust driven outflows, where radiation pressure on dust grains accelerates gas, occur in many astrophysical environments. Almost all previous numerical studies of these systems have assumed that the dust was perfectly-coupled to…
We study the dynamics of large dust grains >1 micron with orbits outside of the heliosphere (beyond 250 AU). Motion of the Solar System through the interstellar medium (ISM) at a velocity of 26 km/s subjects these particles to gas and…
We study the hydrodynamical behavior occurring in the turbulent interaction zone of a fast moving red supergiant star, where the circumstellar and interstellar material collide. In this wind-interstellar medium collision, the familiar bow…
Interstellar dust is an important component of the galactic ecosystem, playing a key role in multiple galaxy formation processes. We present a novel numerical framework for the dynamics and size evolution of dust grains implemented in the…
Dust grains embedded in gas flow give rise to a class of hydrodynamic instabilities that can occur whenever there exists a relative velocity between gas and dust. These instabilities have predominantly been studied for single grain sizes,…
In this paper, we explore from a conceptual standpoint the possibility of using natural astrophysical sources to accelerate spacecrafts to relativistic speeds. We focus on light sails and electric sails, which are reliant on momentum…
We perform two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation on the gas stripping by radiation drag from an interstellar cloud moving in uniform radiation fields. To properly include relativistic radiation drag, the radiation hydrodynamic equation is…
Interstellar dust is an essential component of the interstellar medium (ISM) and plays critical roles in astrophysics. Achieving an accurate model of interstellar dust is therefore of great importance. Interstellar dust models are usually…
The presence of charged dust grains is known to have a profound impact on the physical evolution of the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM). Despite its importance, this process is still poorly explored in numerical simulations due to its…
Outflows of pre-main-sequence stars drive shocks into molecular material within 0.01 - 1 pc of the young stars. The shock-heated gas emits infrared, millimeter and submillimeter lines of many species including. Dust grains are important…
Measurements by dust detectors on interplanetary spacecraft appear to indicate a substantial flux of interstellar particles with masses exceeding 10^{-12}gram. The reported abundance of these massive grains cannot be typical of interstellar…
As part of the NASA Starlight collaboration, we look at the implications of radiation effects from impacts with the interstellar medium (ISM) on a directed energy driven relativistic spacecraft. The spacecraft experiences a stream of…
One proposed method for spacecraft to reach nearby stars is by accelerating sails using either solar radiation pressure or directed energy. This idea constitutes the thesis behind the Breakthrough Starshot project, which aims to accelerate…
Laser sails propelled by gigawatt-scale ground-based laser arrays have the potential to reach relativistic speeds, traversing the solar system in hours and reaching nearby stars in years. Here, we describe the danger interplanetary dust…
Lightsail spacecraft, propelled to relativistic velocities via photon pressure using high power density laser radiation, offer a potentially new route to space exploration within and beyond the solar system, extending to interstellar…
Aims. It is quintessential for the analysis of the observed dust polarization signal to understand the rotational dynamics of interstellar dust grains. Additionally, high rotation velocities may rotationally disrupt the grains, which…
We model accelerated trips at high-velocity aboard light sails (beam-powered propulsion in general) and radiation rockets (thrust by anisotropic emission of radiation) in terms of Kinnersley's solution of general relativity and its…
The origin of dust in galaxy halos or in the circum-galactic medium (CGM) is still a mystery. We investigate if the radiation pressure in high-redshift ($z\sim 10$) galaxies can efficiently transport dust to halos. To clarify the first dust…
The gas-to-dust mass ratios found for interstellar dust within the Solar System, versus values determined astronomically for the cloud around the Solar System, suggest that large and small interstellar grains have separate histories, and…
We investigate the possibility of cosmic ray (CR) confinement by charged dust grains through resonant drag instabilities (RDIs). We perform magnetohydrodynamic particle-in-cell simulations of magnetized gas mixed with charged dust and…