[en] The alignment of dust grains with the ambient magnetic field produces polarization of starlight as well as thermal dust emission. Using the archival SOFIA/HAWC+ polarimetric data observed toward the ρ Ophiuchus (Oph) A cloud hosted by a B star at 89 and 154 μm, we find that the fractional polarization of thermal dust emission first increases with the grain temperature and then decreases once the grain temperature exceeds ≃25–32 K. The latter trend differs from the prediction of the popular RAdiative Torques (RATs) alignment theory, which implies a monotonic increase of the polarization fraction with the grain temperature. We perform numerical modeling of polarized dust emission for the ρ Oph-A cloud and calculate the degree of dust polarization by simultaneously considering the dust grain alignment and rotational disruption by RATs. Our modeling results could successfully reproduce both the rising and declining trends of the observational data. Moreover, we show that the alignment of only silicate grains or a mixture of silicate–carbon grains within a composite structure can reproduce the observational trends, assuming that all dust grains follow a power-law size distribution. Although there are a number of simplifications and limitations to our modeling, our results suggest grains in the ρ Oph-A cloud have a composite structure, and the grain size distribution has a steeper slope than the standard size distribution for the interstellar medium. Combination of SOFIA/HAWC+ data with JCMT observations 450 and 850 μm would be useful to test the proposed scenario based on grain alignment and disruption by RATs.

[en] Optical and infrared continuum polarization from the interstellar medium is driven by radiative processes aligning the grains with the magnetic field. While a quantitative, predictive theory of radiative alignment torques (RATs) exists and has been extensively tested, several parameters of the theory remain to be fully constrained. In a recent paper, Medan & Andersson showed that the polarization efficiency (and therefore grain alignment efficiency) at different locations in the wall of the Local Bubble (LB) could be modeled as proportional to the integrated light intensity from the surrounding stars and OB associations. Here we probe that relationship at high radiation field intensities by studying the extinction and polarization in the two reflection nebulae IC 59 and IC 63 in the Sh 2-185 H ii region, illuminated by the B0 IV star γ Cassiopeia. We combine archival visual polarimetry with new seven-band photometry in the Vilnius system, to derive the polarization efficiency from the material. We find that the same linear relationship seen in the LB wall also applies to the Sh 2-185 region, strengthening the conclusion from the earlier study.

[en] Interstellar dust grain alignment causes polarization from UV to mm wavelengths, allowing the study of the geometry and strength of the magnetic field. Over the last couple of decades, observations and theory have led to the establishment of the radiative alignment torque mechanism as a leading candidate to explain the effect. With a quantitatively well constrained theory, polarization can be used not only to study the interstellar magnetic field, but also the dust and other environmental parameters. Photodissociation regions, with their intense, anisotropic radiation fields, consequent rapid H₂ formation, and high spatial density-contrast provide a rich environment for such studies. Here we discuss an expanded optical, NIR, and mm-wave study of the IC 63 nebula, showing strong H₂ formation-enhanced alignment and the first direct empirical evidence for disalignment due to gas–grain collisions using high-resolution HCO⁺(J = 1-0) observations. We find that a relative amount of polarization is marginally anticorrelated with column density of HCO⁺. However, separating the lines of sight of optical polarimetry into those behind, or in front of, a dense clump as seen from γ Cas, the distribution separates into two well defined sets, with data corresponding to “shaded” gas having a shallower slope. This is expected if the decrease in polarization is caused by collisions since collisional disalignment rate is proportional to $R_C\propto <!--\; ???\; -->n\sqrt{T}$. Ratios of the best-fit slopes for the “illuminated” and “shaded” samples of lines of sight agrees, within the uncertainties, with the square root of the two-temperature H₂ excitation in the nebula seen by Thi et al.

[en] The CS molecule is known to be adsorbed onto dust in cold and dense conditions, causing it to be significantly depleted in the central region of cores. This study is aimed to investigate the depletion of the CS molecule using the optically thin ${\mathrm{C}}^{34}\mathrm{S}$ molecular line observations. We mapped five prestellar cores, L1544, L1552, L1689B, L694-2, and L1197, using two molecular lines, ${\mathrm{C}}^{34}\mathrm{S}$ (J = 2 − 1) and ${\mathrm{N}}_2{\mathrm{H}}^{+}$ (J = 1 − 0) with the NRO 45 m telescope, doubling the number of cores where the CS depletion was probed using ${\mathrm{C}}^{34}\mathrm{S}$. In most of our targets, the distribution of ${\mathrm{C}}^{34}\mathrm{S}$ emission shows features that suggest that the CS molecule is generally depleted in the center of the prestellar cores. The radial profile of the CS abundance with respect to ${\mathrm{H}}_2$ directly measured from the CS emission and the Herschel dust emission indicates that the CS molecule is depleted by a factor of ∼3 toward the central regions of the cores with respect to their outer regions. The degree of the depletion is found to be even more enhanced, by an order of magnitude, when the contaminating effect introduced by the presence of CS molecules in the surrounding envelope that lie along the line of sight is removed. Except for L1197—which is classified as relatively the least evolved core in our targets, based on its observed physical parameters—we found that the remaining four prestellar cores are suffering from significant CS depletion at their central region, regardless of the relative difference in their evolutionary status.

[en] We present the results on the physical properties of filaments and dense cores in IC 5146, as a part of the TRAO FUNS project. We carried out on-the-fly mapping observations using the Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory (TRAO) 14 m telescope covering about 1 square degree of the area of IC 5146 using various molecular lines. We identified 14 filaments (24 in total, including sub-filaments) from the C¹⁸O (1–0) data cube and 22 dense cores from the N₂H⁺ (1–0) data. We examined the filaments’ gravitational criticality, turbulence properties, accretion rate from filaments to dense cores, and relative evolutionary stages of cores. Most filaments in IC 5146 are gravitationally supercritical within the uncertainty, and most dense cores are formed in them. We found that dense cores in the hubs show a systemic velocity shift of ∼0.3 km s⁻¹ between the N₂H⁺ and C¹⁸O gas. Besides, these cores are subsonic or transonic, while the surrounding filament gas is transonic or supersonic, indicating that the cores in the hubs are likely formed by the dissipation of turbulence in the colliding turbulent filaments and the merging is still ongoing. We estimated a mass accretion rate of 15–35 M _⊙ Myr⁻¹ from the filaments to the dense cores, and the required timescales to collect the current core mass are consistent with the lifetime of the dense cores. The structures of filaments and dense cores in the hub can form from a collision of turbulent converging flows, and mass flow along the filaments to the dense cores may play an important role in forming dense cores.