Infrared polarimetry and the Galactic magnetic field. II - Improved models

Details Infrared polarimetry and the Galactic magnetic field. II - Improved models Infrared polarimetry and the Galactic magnetic field. II - Improved models

Apr 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992apj...389..602j&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 389, April 20, 1992, p. 602-615.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

58

Astronomical Polarimetry, Infrared Astronomy, Interstellar Extinction, Interstellar Matter, Magnetic Field Configurations, Stellar Models, Line Of Sight, Magnetohydrodynamic Waves, Molecular Clouds, Optical Thickness

Scientific paper

Two models of the Galactic magnetic field are developed in order to account for the observed trend in interstellar polarization with extinction at 2l2 microns. It is shown that the trend can be well accounted for by assuming that there is no dependence of the polarization on field strength and that the large elongated dust grains are everywhere 100 percent aligned. A model for the magnetic field using Alfven waves works best when there is equipartition between the magnetic and turbulent energy densities. A model invoking vector addition of a constant component and a random component works best when there is equal energy density in the two components. Both models do well in matching the observed dispersion in polarization magnitude and the observed dispersion in position angle. The path length over which the magnetic field decorrelates must be tied to the total path, not the physical path length. Two simple cloud compression scenarios may explain this finding.

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