Related papers: A new interpretation of Serkowski's polarization l…
We extend previous theoretical works to gain a better understanding of the origin of observed polarisation degree spectra of molecular clouds, which show a so-called V-shape, i.e. a pronounced minimum around 350~$\mu$m. For this purpose, we…
Biological molecules are characterized by an intrinsic asymmetry known as homochirality. The result is optical activity of biological materials and circular polarization in the light scattered by microorganisms, cells of living organisms,…
We study ballistic transport of Dirac electrons through a strip in silicene, when the strip is exposed to off-resonant circularly polarized light and an electric field applied perpendicular to the silicene plane. We show that the…
We present a statistical analysis of the interstellar medium (ISM) polarization from the largest compilation available of starlight data, which comprises ~ 5500 stars. The measured correlation between the mean polarization degree and…
X-ray polarimetry is a fine tool to probe the accretion geometry and physical processes operating in the proximity of compact objects, black holes and neutron stars. Recent discoveries made by the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer put our…
We examine the thermal infrared spectra of large dust grains of different chemical composition and mineralogy. Strong resonances in the optical properties result in detectable spectral structure even when the grain is much larger than the…
We present evidence of a >10-sigma detection of the 10 micron silicate dust absorption feature in the spectrum of the gravitationally lensed quasar PKS 1830-211, produced by a foreground absorption system at redshift 0.886. We have examined…
We reduced ESO's archival linear spectropolarimetry data (4000-9000\AA) of 6 highly polarized and 8 unpolarized standard stars observed between 2010 and 2016, for a total of 70 epochs, with the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph…
We propose polarization of scattered optical light from intermediate Galactic latitude infrared cirrus as a new diagnostic to constrain models of interstellar dust and the anisotropic interstellar radiation field (aISRF). For single…
The near-star environment around obscured stars is very dynamic. Many classes of stars show evidence for winds, disks, inflows and outflows with many phenomena occurring simultaneously. These processes are involved in stellar evolution,…
Freely oriented small anisotropic grains and molecules depolarize radiation both in single scattering and in the process of multiple scattering. Especially large depolarization occurs for resonant scattering corresponding to the electron…
Polarimetry aims to measure polarization information of an optical field, providing a new freedom to enhance performance of optical metrology. Furthermore, the polarimetry in infrared (IR) range holds a promise for a wide range of academic…
The light received by source stars in microlensing events may be significantly polarized if both an efficient photon scattering mechanism is active in the source stellar atmosphere and a differential magnification is therein induced by the…
The galaxy M51 was observed using the Mimir instrument on the Perkins telescope to constrain the resolved H-band (1.6 $\mu$m) polarization across the galaxy. These observations place an upper limit of $P_H<0.05%$ on the $H$-band…
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…
This paper describes a method for the explicit reconstruction and visualization of various polarization ellipses from the intensities measured after a rotating polarizer. The state of polarization of a light beam is represented by the…
Studying the composition of dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) is crucial in understanding the cycle of dust in our galaxy. The mid-infrared spectral signature of amorphous silicates, the most abundant dust species in the ISM, is studied…
It is well known that aligned, aspherical dust grains emit polarized radiation and that the degree of polarization depends on the angle $\psi$ between the interstellar magnetic field and the line of sight. However, anisotropy of the dust…
We present a new method for using the observed starlight polarization and polarized submm emission to constrain the shapes and porosities of interstellar grains. We present the modified picket fence approximation (MPFA), and verify that it…
Using the method of separation of variables and a new approach to calculations of the prolate spheroidal wave functions, we study the optical properties of very elongated (cigar-like) spheroidal particles. A comparison of extinction…