Related papers: Polarization of circumstellar debris disk light ec…
We explore whether protoplanetary disks with self-shadowing from puffed up inner rims exhibit observable features in scattered light images. We use both self-consistent hydrostatic equilibrium calculations and parameterized models to…
High-resolution scattered-light imaging has revealed complex morphologies in protoplanetary and circumstellar disks. Measuring the vertical height of the scattering surface is key to understanding disk structure, evolution, and the…
We find that the polarimetric observations of protoplanetary disks are useful to search for ultra-light axion dark matter. Axion dark matter predicts the rotation of the linear polarization plane of propagating light, and protoplanetary…
Observations of circumstellar disks provide a powerful tool for our understanding of planetary systems dynamics. Analogs to the Solar System asteroid belts, debris disks result from the collision of the remaining solid material of the…
Direct imaging has paved the way for atmospheric characterization of young and self-luminous gas giants. Scattering in a horizontally-inhomogeneous atmosphere causes the disk-integrated polarization of the thermal radiation to be linearly…
The location of surface brightness maxima (e.g. apocentre and pericentre glow) in eccentric debris discs are often used to infer the underlying orbits of the dust and planetesimals that comprise the disc. However, there is a misconception…
Polarization is an important indicator of stellar evolution, especially for stars evolving from red-giant stage to planetary nebulae. However, not much is known about the polarimetric properties of the carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP)…
Cold debris disks (T$<$200 K) are analogues to the dust in the Solar System's Kuiper belt--dust generated from the evaporation and collision of minor bodies perturbed by planets, our Sun, and the local interstellar medium. Scattered light…
Many active stars are covered in spots, much more so than the Sun, as indicated by spectroscopic and photometric observations. It has been predicted that star spots induce non-zero intrinsic linear polarization by breaking the visible…
Circular dichroism spectroscopy is an essential technique for understanding molecular structure and magnetic materials, but spatial resolution is limited by the wavelength of light, and sensitivity sufficient for single-molecule…
In recent decades, the relevance of polarimetry in planetary sciences and astronomy has increased rapidly. Polarization is a fundamental property of light and can be modified by any scattering event. As such, polarization yields additional…
We predict polarimetric line profiles for scattering off rotating disks using a Monte Carlo technique. We have discovered that there is a marked difference between scattering of line emission by a disk that reaches the stellar surface, and…
We present preliminary calculations of electron scattering polarizations from models of structured cool star envelopes. We note that net polarizations from unresolved sources can result from non-spherical scattering envelopes and/or…
The Doppler shifts of optical emission lines which have been scattered by surrounding dust and electrons can provide useful information about the kinematics, geometry and physical conditions of astrophysical flows. In principle, the…
Conventional indirect dark matter (DM) searches look for an excess in the electromagnetic emission from the sky that cannot be attributed to known astrophysical sources, but its polarisation has not been explored to date. In this…
The dynamic and secondary spectra of many pulsars show evidence for long-lived, aligned images of the pulsar that are stationary on a thin scattering sheet. One explanation for this phenomenon considers the effects of wave crests along…
Light scattered off particles can become linearly polarized. Stars surrounded by oblique, co-rotating envelopes are therefore expected to manifest periodic linear polarimetric variations. The electron scattering magnetospheres of magnetic…
Spatially resolved scattered-light images of circumstellar (CS) debris in exoplanetary systems constrain the physical properties and orbits of the dust particles in these systems. They also inform on co-orbiting (but unseen) planets,…
Interstellar polarization from aligned dust grains can be measured both in transmission at visible and near-infrared wavelengths and in emission at far-infrared and sub-mm wavelengths. These observations can help predict the behavior of…
The current picture painted by the observations of circumstellar dust at white dwarfs, and the consequent atmospheric pollution, is of a surviving planetary system. This chapter recounts in detail both the discovery and empirical…