Related papers: Disorientation of Suprathermally Rotating Grains a…
Paramagnetic alignment of thermally rotating oblate dust grains is studied analytically for finite ratios of grain to gas temperatures. For such ratios, the alignment of angular momentum J in respect to the grain axis of maximal inertia is…
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.…
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…
It is shown that mechanical alignment of grains can be efficient for grains rotating suprathermally, i.e. with kinetic energy substantially exceeding $k$ (the Boltzmann constant) over any temperature in the system. The paper studies…
Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the alignment of grains with the interstellar magnetic field, including paramagnetic dissipation, radiative torques, and supersonic gas-grain streaming. These must compete with disaligning…
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…
Radiative torques on irregular dust grains, in addition to producing superthermal rotation, play a direct dynamical role in the alignment of interstellar dust with the local magnetic field. The equations governing the orientation of…
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,…
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…
Paramagnetic alignment of fractal suprathermally rotating grains is discussed. It is shown that if the concentration of H$_{2}$formation sites is low and resurfacing is active, fractal structure of grains enhances their alignment. Studying…
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…
Polarimetry is one of the most informative techniques of studying magnetic fields in molecular clouds. How reliable the interpretation of the polarization maps in terms of magnetic fields is the issue that the grain alignment theory…
Interstellar dust grains exhibit complex dynamics which is essential for understanding many key interstellar processes that involve dust, including grain alignment, grain growth, grain shattering etc. Grain rotational and translational…
Polarization arising from aligned dust grains presents a unique opportunity to study magnetic fields in the diffuse interstellar medium and molecular clouds. Polarization from circumstellar regions, accretion disks and comet atmospheres can…
Motivated by a recent study by Lazarian and Draine, which showed that a high degree of grain alignment of the paramagnetic dust is achievable if the rates of internal relaxation are controlled by the Barnett relaxation process, we undertake…
Alignment of dust grains in astrophysical environments results in the polarization of starlight as well as the polarization of radiation emitted by dust. We demonstrate the advances in grain alignment theory allow the use of linear and…
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…
Dust grains drift through the interstellar medium (ISM) and are aligned with the magnetic field. Here we study the effect of grain alignment and grain motion on grain growth in molecular clouds (MCs). We first discuss the characteristic…
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…
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…