Related papers: Grain Alignment in Molecular Clouds
A three dimensional Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation is carried out to explore the equilibrium configurations of charged dust particles. These equilibrium configuration are of astrophysical significance for the conditions of molecular…
We use the POLARIS radiative transport code to generate predictions of the two main observables directly sensitive to the magnetic field morphology and strength in filaments: dust polarization and gas Zeeman line splitting. We simulate…
Optical and infrared continuum polarization from the interstellar medium is known to generally be due to irregular dust grains aligned with the magnetic field. This provides an important tool to probe the geometry and strength of those…
In this study, we perform 3D magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) simulations of filamentary molecular clouds. We then generate synthetic observations based on the simulation results. Using these, we investigate how the new polarization data analysis…
In this chapter we review recent advances in understanding the roles that magnetic fields play throughout the star formation process, gained through observations and simulations of molecular clouds, the dense, star-forming phase of the…
Within ten nearby (d < 450 pc) Gould Belt molecular clouds we evaluate statistically the relative orientation between the magnetic field projected on the plane of sky, inferred from the polarized thermal emission of Galactic dust observed…
One can estimate the characteristic magnetic field strength in GMCs by comparing submillimeter polarimetric observations of these sources with simulated polarization maps developed using a range of different values for the assumed field…
The BLASTPol observations of Vela C have provided the most detailed characterization of the polarization fraction $p$ and dispersion in polarization angles $S$ for a molecular cloud. We compare the observed distributions of $p$ and $S$ with…
Molecular clouds are a fundamental ingredient of galaxies: they are the channels that transform the diffuse gas into stars. The detailed process of how they do it is not completely understood. We review the current knowledge of molecular…
Dust grains are important in various astrophysical processes and serve as indicators of interstellar medium structures, density, and mass. Understanding their physical properties and chemical composition is crucial in astrophysics. Dust…
Aims: In this paper we present a case study to investigate conditions necessary to detect a characteristic magnetic field substructure embedded in a large-scale field. A helical magnetic field with a surrounding hourglass shaped field is…
A previous study (Paper I) investigated the polarization properties of a variety of simple convex grain shapes, some of which were found to be consistent with the observed polarization properties of interstellar dust from far-ultraviolet to…
We report the first measurement of polarized thermal dust emission toward the entire early and massive Infrared Dark Cloud G11.11$-$0.12 taken by the polarimeter SOFIA/HAWC+ at 214 $\mu m$ wavelength. Magnetic fields (B-fields) obtained…
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.…
This paper provides a quantitative account of a recently introduced mechanism of mechanical alignment of suprathermally rotating grains. These rapidly rotating grains are essentially not susceptible to random torques arising from gas-grain…
Radiative Torques (RATs) or Mechanical Torques (METs) acting on irregular grains can induce the alignment of dust grains in respect to the alignment axis (AA), which can be either the direction of the magnetic field, or the direction of the…
Requirements for magnetic coupling and accretion in the active layer of a protostellar disk are re-examined, and some implications for thermal emission from the layer are discussed. The ionization and electrical conductivity are calculated…
Of all the factors that influence star formation, magnetic fields are perhaps the least well understood. The goal of this paper is to characterize the 3D magnetic field properties of nearby molecular clouds through various methods of…
Interstellar dust grain alignment causes polarization from UV to mm wavelengths, allowing the study of the geometry and strength of the magnetic field. Over last couple of decades observations and theory have led to the establishment of the…
Polarized emission from dust is an important foreground that can hinder the progress in polarized CMB studies unless carefully accounted for. We discuss potential difficulties associated with the dust foreground, namely, the existence of…