Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21543119j&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #431.19; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.365
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The observed polarization of starlight is due to the alignment of interstellar dust grains with the Galactic magnetic field. The degree to which the grains are aligned is dependent on both alignment and disalignment mechanisms. For decades, disalignment was presumed to be principally due to collisions with gas atoms, with each collision imparting a random angular impulse to the grain. Recently, a new candidate disalignment mechanism for a grain with a changing electric dipole moment, drifting across a magnetic field, was proposed. Here we investigate this mechanism, modeling the effects of individual charging events on the dipole magnitude and orientation. We simulate these effects for amorphous silicate grains ≥ 0.1 µm in size and of different levels of electrical conductivity, and present quantitative disalignment time estimates for each grain type. Our results indicate disalignment timescales that are shorter than those for radiative torque alignment, except for grains with superparamagnetic inclusions.
Jordan Margaret
Weingartner Joseph C.
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