Related papers: Cosmic rays and grain alignment
Although interstellar grains are known to be aspherical, their actual shapes remain poorly constrained. We assess whether three continuous distributions of ellipsoidal shapes from the literature are suitable for describing the shapes of…
Polarization of starlight and thermal dust emission caused by aligned dust grains is a valuable tool to characterize magnetic fields (B-fields) and constrain dust properties. However, the physics of grain alignment is not fully understood.…
It is shown that F(R)-modified gravitational theories lead to curvature oscillations in astrophysical systems with rising energy density. The frequency and the amplitude of such oscillations could be very high and would lead to noticeable…
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…
An explanation of the puzzling alignment effect observed in cosmic ray experiments is suggested
Heating of whole interstellar dust grains by cosmic-ray (CR) particles affects the gas-grain chemistry in molecular clouds by promoting molecule desorption, diffusion, and chemical reactions on grain surfaces. The frequency of such heating…
Cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular and diffuse clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal, and dynamical evolution. The amount of cosmic rays inside a cloud also determines the $\gamma$-ray flux produced by…
We present a novel method to measure the strength of interstellar magnetic fields based on ultraviolet (UV) polarization of starlight, which is in part produced by weakly aligned, small interstellar grains. We begin with calculating degrees…
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…
A model of spheroidal particles is used to calculate the steady-state temperature of dust grains immersed in the interstellar radiation field. It is found that the temperature of non-spherical grains with the aspect ratios a/b <= 2 deviates…
Molecular clouds are complex magnetized structures, with variations over a broad range of length scales. Ionization in dense, shielded clumps and cores of molecular clouds is thought to be caused by charged cosmic rays (CRs). These CRs can…
The effects of cosmic-ray diffusion and radiative cooling on the structure of the Galactic wind are studied using a steady state approximation. It is known that realistic cooling processes suppress the wind from launching. The effects of…
Interstellar polarization at far-infrared through millimeter wavelengths (0.1 - 1 mm) is primarily due to thermal emission from dust grains aligned with magnetic fields. This mechanism has led to studies of magnetic fields in a variety of…
There is an observational correlation between astrophysical shocks and non-thermal particle distributions extending to high energies. As a first step toward investigating the possible feedback of these particles on the shock at the…
The properties of polarization in scattered light by aligned ellipsoidal grains are investigated with the Fredholm integral equation method (FIM) and the T-matrix method (Tmat), and the results are applied to the observed circular…
We construct a Galactic cosmic ray (CR) diffusion model while considering that CR sources reside predominantly in the Galactic spiral arms. We find that the CR flux (CRF) reaching the solar system should periodically increase each crossing…
(Abridged) Cosmic rays (CRs) are thought to provide an important source of ionization in the outermost and densest regions of protoplanetary disks; however, it is unknown to what degree they are physically present. As is observed in the…
In many models of dusty objects in space the grains are assumed to be composite or fluffy. However, the computation of the optical properties of such particles is still a very difficult problem. We analyze how the increase of grain porosity…
Interstellar medium is turbulent and this induces relative motions of dust grains. We calculate relative velocities of charged grains in a partially ionized magnetized gas. We account for anisotropy of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence,…
Polarized microwave emission from dust is an important foreground that may contaminate polarized CMB studies unless carefully accounted for. Modeling of polarization from dust requires a quantitative understanding of grain alignment. I…