Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21831802j&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #218, #318.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The role magnetic fields play in star formation is not well understood, and it is possible that magnetic fields may play a critical role. Polarimetry, by tracing the dust grains aligned with the magnetic field, can probe the magnetic field in the clouds where star formation is occurring. Currently, the details of the process that aligns dust grains are still unknown. An understanding of the alignment mechanism is necessary to interpret polarization maps as potential tracers of the Galactic magnetic field. We present results of a study of near-infrared polarimetry of two large molecular clouds using data from the Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS). GPIPS is a 76 sq. degree survey of the Galactic plane that uses the Mimir instrument on the 1.8m Perkins telescope outside Flagstaff, AZ. Recent evidence suggests that radiative torques (RATs) may be the dominant alignment mechanism in molecular clouds. If true, this would mean that the largest dust grains within dense regions of molecular clouds, the regions where the first stages of star formation occur, could be aligned and tracing the local magnetic field. By seeing how percentage polarization changes with increasing depth into dense regions of molecular clouds, we are able to test the predictions of the RATs theory. We also gain valuable insight about how deeply into clouds the magnetic field can be traced and also learn about the grain size distributions there. This work is partially supported by NSF AST 09-07790.
Clemens Dan P.
Jameson Katherine
Marchwinski Robert
Pavel Michael
Pinnick April
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