Related papers: On the Disalignment of Interstellar Grains
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…
The alignment of interstellar dust grains with magnetic fields provides a key method for measuring the strength and morphology of the fields. In turn, this provides a means to study the role of magnetic fields from diffuse gas to dense…
Paramagnetic alignment of suprathermally rotating grains is discussed in view of recent progress in understanding subtle processes taking place over grain surface. It is shown that in typical ISM conditions, grains with surfaces of…
We develop a comprehensive quantitative description of the cross-section mechanism discovered several years ago by Lazarian. This is one of the processes that determine grain orientation in clouds of suprathermal cosmic dust. The…
We show that the energy-level splitting arising from grain rotation ensures that paramagnetic dissipation acts at its maximum rate, i.e., the conditions for paramagnetic resonance are automatically fulfilled. We refer to this process as…
We consider grains with superparamagnetic inclusions and report two new condensed matter effects that can enhance the internal relaxation of the energy of a wobbling grain, namely, superparamagnetic Barnett relaxation, as well as, an…
Alignment of dust by radiative torques (RATs) has proven to be the most promising mechanism to explain alignment in various astrophysical environments, from comet atmospheres to accretion disks, molecular clouds, and diffuse interstellar…
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.…
Polarization carries information about the magnetic fields in interstellar clouds. The observations of polarized dust emission are used to study the role of magnetic fields in the evolution of molecular clouds and the initial phases of…
Grain alignment is a notoriously difficult problem, that is extremely rich in underlying physics. The long history of attempts theoretical handling of the problem resulted in rather sceptical approach to the theory on the part of some…
We study the efficiency of grain alignment by radiative torques (RATs) for an ensemble of irregular grains. The grains are modeled as ensembles of oblate and prolate spheroids, deformed as Gaussian random ellipsoids, and their scattering…
Rapidly spinning magnetic grains can acquire large magnetic dipole moments due to the Barnett effect. Here we study the new effect of Barnett magnetic dipole-dipole interaction on grain-grain collisions and grain growth, assuming grains…
The interaction between dust grains is an important process in fields as diverse as planetesimal formation or the plasma processing of silicon wafers into computer chips. This interaction depends in large part on the material properties 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…
Since the classical work by Purcell (1979) it has been generally accepted that most interstellar grains rotate suprathermally. Suprathermally rotating grains would be nearly perfectly aligned with the magnetic field by paramagnetic…
The interaction between dust grains is an important process in fields as diverse as planetesimal formation or the plasma processing of silicon wafers into computer chips. This interaction depends in large part on the material properties of…
Context: Aligned dust grains are commonly exploited to probe the magnetic field orientation. However, the exact physical processes that result in a coherent large-scale grain alignment are far from being constrained. Aims: In this work, we…
A new mechanism is described, analyzed and visualized, for the dissipation of suprathermal rotation energy of molecules in magnetic fields, a necessary condition for their alignment. It relies upon the Lorentz force perturbing the motion of…
Grain alignment by radiative torques (RATs) has been extensively studied for various environment conditions, including interstellar medium, dense molecular clouds, and accretion disks, thanks to significant progress in observational,…
Polarization of optical starlight and far-infrared thermal dust emission due to alignment of interstellar grains offers a powerful window to study magnetic fields in the various astrophysical environments, from the diffuse interstellar…