Systematic variations of interstellar linear polarization and growth of dust grains

Abstract

A quantitative interpretation of the observed relation between the interstellar linear polarization curve parameters $K$ and ${\lambda }_{\max }$ characterizing the width and the wavelength of a polarization maximum, respectively, is given. The observational data available for 57 stars located in the dark clouds in Taurus, Chamaeleon, around the stars $\rho$ Oph and R CrA are considered. The spheroidal particle model of interstellar dust grains earlier applied to simultaneously interpret the interstellar extinction and polarization curves in a wide spectral range is utilized. The observed trend $K\approx 1.7{\lambda }_{\max }$ is shown to be most likely related to a growth of dust grains due to coagulation rather than mantle accretion. The relation of the parameters $K$ and ${\lambda }_{\max }$ with an average size of silicate dust grains is discussed.

16 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters

References in corpus (4)

• Evolution of interstellar dust and stardust in the solar neighbourhood
• Observational Constraints on Interstellar Grain Alignment
• Interstellar extinction and interstellar polarization: old and new models
• Modelling interstellar extinction and polarization with spheroidal grains

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