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Diffuse Interstellar Medium (diffuse + interstellar_medium)

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Physics and Astronomy100%

Selected Abstracts

Radiative torques: analytical model and basic properties

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2007
A. Lazarian
ABSTRACT We attempt to get a physical insight into grain alignment processes by studying basic properties of radiative torques (RATs). For this purpose we consider a simple toy model of a helical grain that reproduces well the basic features of RATs. The model grain consists of a spheroidal body with a mirror attached at an angle to it. Being very simple, the model allows analytical description of RATs that act upon it. We show a good correspondence of RATs obtained for this model and those of irregular grains calculated by ddscat. Our analysis of the role of different torque components for grain alignment reveals that one of the three RAT components does not affect the alignment, but induces only for grain precession. The other two components provide a generic alignment with grain long axes perpendicular to the radiation direction, if the radiation dominates the grain precession, and perpendicular to magnetic field, otherwise. The latter coincides with the famous predictions of the Davis,Greenstein process, but our model does not invoke paramagnetic relaxation. In fact, we identify a narrow range of angles between the radiation beam and the magnetic field, for which the alignment is opposite to the Davis,Greenstein predictions. This range is likely to vanish, however, in the presence of thermal wobbling of grains. In addition, we find that a substantial part of grains subjected to RATs gets aligned with low angular momentum, which testifies that most of the grains in diffuse interstellar medium do not rotate fast, that is, rotate with thermal or even subthermal velocities. This tendency of RATs to decrease grain angular velocity as a result of the RAT alignment decreases the degree of polarization, by decreasing the degree of internal alignment, that is, the alignment of angular momentum with the grain axes. For the radiation-dominated environments, we find that the alignment can take place on the time-scale much shorter than the time of gaseous damping of grain rotation. This effect makes grains a more reliable tracer of magnetic fields. In addition, we study a self-similar scaling of RATs as a function of ,/aeff. We show that the self-similarity is useful for studying grain alignment by a broad spectrum of radiation, that is, interstellar radiation field. [source]

ISO observations of 3,200 ,m emission by three dust populations in an isolated local translucent cloud

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2005
M. G. Rawlings
ABSTRACT We present isophot spectrophotometry of three positions within the isolated high-latitude cirrus cloud G 300.2,16.8, spanning from the near- to far-infrared (NIR to FIR). The positions exhibit contrasting emission spectrum contributions from the unidentified infrared bands (UIBs), very small grains (VSGs) and large classical grains, and both semi-empirical and numerical models are presented. At all three positions, the UIB spectrum shapes are found to be similar and the large grain emission may be fitted by an equilibrium temperature of ,17.5 K. The energy requirements of both the observed emission spectrum and optical scattered light are shown to be satisfied by the incident local interstellar radiation field (ISRF). The FIR emissivity of dust in G 300.2,16.8 is found to be lower than in globules or dense clouds and is even lower than model predictions for dust in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). The results suggest physical differences in the ISM mixtures between positions within the cloud, possibly arising from grain coagulation processes. [source]

Spectroscopy of Hydrocarbon Grains toward the Galactic Center and Quintuplet Cluster

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue S1 2003
J.E. Chiar
Abstract Our view of the Galactic center (GC) is affected by extinction from both diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) dust and dense molecular clouds along the line of sight. The enormous visual extinction present toward the center of our Galaxy (,31 magnitudes) necessitates a study of the interstellar dust properties as well as an investigation into the distribution of the different dust components. We have built upon the historic spectroscopy of Willner et al. (1979), Butchart et al. (1986), and McFadzean et al. (1989) in order to investigate the distribution of these dust components across the GC field. Specifically, we employ spectroscopy in the 3 ,m region to investigate absorption features at 3.0 ,m and 3.4 ,m in lines of sight toward the GC central cluster and the Quintuplet cluster to the northeast. The 3.4 ,m feature is one of the primary spectral signatures of the organic component of interstellar dust and is, to date, only observed in the cold diffuse interstellar medium. The 3.0 ,m ice feature is carried by dense molecular cloud material, and can therefore be used to loosely trace the distribution of such material across the GC field. By obtaining spectra for multiple sightlines we have been able to deconvolve the diffuse ISM and dense molecular cloud components. Our study shows that differences exist in the spectra of relatively nearby lines of sight in the Galactic center central cluster. The depth of the 3.0 ,m water-ice feature varies by a factor of almost 5 across a 2 parsec (in projection) region, perhaps re.ecting the clumpy nature of the dense clouds. In addition, we found that the 3.4 ,m hydrocarbon feature varies in depth across the areas studied toward the central cluster, whereas the depth is relatively constant toward the Quintuplet cluster. This is likely a reflection of the distribution of extinction from the foreground diffuse ISM. Our ground-based and space-based spectroscopy reveals differences in absorption features in the 3 and 6 ,m regions between sightlines toward the GC central cluster and those toward the Quintuplet cluster. While the 3 ,m spectra of both regions show a broad absorption feature blueward of the 3.4 ,m absorption, only the Quintuplet spectra show a distinct absorption feature at 3.28 ,m. This feature is indicative of the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) along the line of sight. The Quintuplet-proper sources have 6 ,m spectra that are markedly different than that of GC IRS 7 in the central cluster, and instead strongly resemble the spectra seen toward dusty late-type carbon-class (WC)Wolf-Rayet stars. This is the first hint of some spectroscopic similarity between the Quintuplet sources and dusty WC stars. [source]