Related papers: Alignment of irregular grains by radiative torques…
We show that grains can be efficiently aligned by interacting with a subsonic gaseous flow. The alignment arises from grains having irregularities that scatter atoms with different efficiency in the right and left directions. The grains…
We apply the theory of radiative torque (RAT) alignment for studying protoplanetary disks around a T-Tauri star and perform 3D radiative transfer calculations to provide the expected maps of polarized radiation to be compared with…
Collisions of gas particles with a drifting grain give rise to a mechanical torque on the grain. Recent work by Lazarian & Hoang showed that mechanical torques might play a significant role in aligning helical grains along the interstellar…
While the problem of grain alignment was posed more than 60 years ago the quantitative model of grain alignment that can account for the observed polarization arising from aligned grains has been formulated only recently. The quantitative…
We study the physical processes inducing the alignment of the grain axis of maximum inertia moment with the angular momentum (${\bf J}$, i.e., internal alignment) and of ${\bf J}$ with the magnetic field (i.e., external alignment) of very…
We study alignment of grains by radiative torques. We found steep rise of radiative torque efficiency as grain size increases. This allows larger grains that are known to exist within molecular clouds to be aligned by the attenuated and…
Grain alignment theory suggests that grains should be aligned in circumstellar regions and the observational data available supports this conclusion. We discuss the alignment of grains via (1) magnetic relaxation, (2) mechanical processes,…
We reveal a deep connection between alignment of dust grains by RAdiative torques (RATs) and MEchanical Torques (METs) and rotational disruption of grains introduced by Hoang et al. (2019). The disruption of grains happens if they have…
Paramagnetic alignment of non-spherical dust grains rotating at thermal velocities is studied. The analytical solution is found for the alignment measure of oblate grains. Perturbative approach is used for solving the problem. It is shown…
The polarization of starlight and thermal dust emission, resulting from non-spherical grains aligned with the interstellar magnetic field (B-field), act as a powerful tool to trace the B-field morphologies and strengths in molecular clouds…
The linear polarization of thermal dust emission provides a powerful tool to probe interstellar and circumstellar magnetic fields, because aspherical grains tend to align themselves with magnetic field lines. While the Radiative Alignment…
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 polarisation of light induced by aligned interstellar dust serves as a significant tool in investigating cosmic magnetic fields, dust properties, and poses a challenge in characterising the polarisation of the cosmic microwave…
Dust clouds are ubiquitous in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters and affect their observable properties. The alignment of dust grains in the clouds and resulting dust polarization is a promising method to study magnetic fields of exoplanets.…
We study the alignment and rotational disruption of dust grains at the centre of our Galaxy using polarized thermal dust emission observed by SOFIA/HAWC+ and JCMT/SCUPOL at 53, 216, and 850 $\mu$m. We analyzed the relationship between the…
Aligned grains provide one of the easiest ways to study magnetic fields in diffuse gas and molecular clouds. How reliable our conclusions about the inferred magnetic field depends critically on our understanding of the physics of grain…
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…
In the previous papers in this series, we found that radiative torques can play a major role in the alignment of grains with the interstellar magnetic field. Since the radiative torques can drive the grains to suprathermal rotational…
It is shown, that mechanical alignment can be efficient for suprathermally rotating grains, provided that they drift with supersonic velocities. Such a drift should be widely spread due to both Alfv\'{e}nic waves and ambipolar diffusion.…
The recent detection of interstellar polarization in the solid CO feature near 4.67 micron shows that CO-mantled grains can be aligned in cold molecular clouds. These observations conflict with a theory of grain alignment which attributes…