Related papers: Polarization of circumstellar debris disk light ec…
We present results from two Herschel observing programs using the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer. During three separate campaigns, we obtained Herschel data for 24 stars at 70, 100, and 160 microns. We chose stars that were…
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…
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…
For a comprehensive understanding of planetary formation and evolution, we need to investigate the environment in which planets form: circumstellar disks. Here we present high-contrast imaging observations of V4046 Sagittarii, a 20-Myr-old…
We present high-contrast angular differential imaging (ADI) observations of the debris disk around HD 32297 in H-band, as well as the first polarimetric images for this system in polarized differential imaging (PDI) mode with Subaru/HICIAO.…
Cold inactive disks are believed to exist in Low Luminosity AGN (LLAGN). They may also exist in the nuclei of inactive galaxies and in the center of our own Galaxy. These disks would then be embedded in the observed dense nuclear stellar…
It is believed that magnetic field lines are twisted and bend by turbulent motions in the Galaxy. Therefore, both Galactic synchrotron emission and thermal emission from dust reflects statistics of Galactic turbulence. Our simple model of…
If the existence of an obscuring circumnuclear region around the innermost regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been observationally proven, its geometry remains highly uncertain. The morphology usually adopted for this region is a…
Much interest has been generated recently by the ongoing MACHO, EROS and OGLE projects to identify gravitationally lensed stars from the Large Magellanic Cloud and Galactic bulge, and the positive identification of several events (Alcock et…
We discuss how we obtain the spatial distribution of ice on the surface of the circumstellar disk around young stars. Ice in the disks plays a very important role in various issues, for instance, on the disk structure, on the planet…
Specularly reflected light, or glint, from an ocean surface may provide a useful observational tool for studying extrasolar terrestrial planets. Detection of sea-surface glints would differentiate ocean-bearing terrestrial planets, i.e.…
We study the light scattering by localized quasi planar excitations of a Cholesteric Liquid Crystal known as spherulites. Due to the anisotropic optical properties of the medium and the peculiar shape of the excitations, we quantitatively…
Spectro-photometry of debris disks in total intensity and polarimetry can provide new insight into the properties of the dust grains therein (size distribution and optical properties). We aim to constrain the morphology of the highly…
We investigate the possibilities of searching for a self-conjugate polarizable particle in the self-interactions of light. We first observe that polarizability can arise either from the exchange of mediator states or as a consequence of the…
Interstellar dust grains efficiently absorb and scatter UV and optical radiation in galaxies, and therefore can significantly affect the apparent structure of spiral galaxies. We discuss the effect of dust attenuation on the observed…
We study the effects of an annular gap induced by an embedded proto-planet on disk scattered light images and the infrared spectral energy distribution. We find that the outer edge of a gap is brighter in the scattered light images than a…
Context. Structures in debris disks induced by planetdisk interaction are promising to provide valuable constraints on the existence and properties of embedded planets. Aims. We investigate the observability of structures in debris disks…
We investigate how significant the spiral structure is on calculations concerning radiative transfer in dusty spiral galaxies seen edge-on. The widely adopted exponential disk model (i.e. both the stars and the dust are distributed…
HD$\,$169142 is an excellent target to investigate signs of planet-disk interaction due to the previous evidence of gap structures. We performed J-band (~1.2{\mu}m) polarized intensity imaging of HD169142 with VLT/SPHERE. We observe…
We present multi-frequency polarization observations of the diffuse radio synchrotron background modulated by Faraday rotation. No total intensity is observed, indicating that total intensity does not vary on scales below approximately a…