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Register a new userTorques on Spheroidal Silicate Grains Exposed to Anisotropic Interstellar Radiation Fields
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Added by
Joseph C. Weingartner
Publication date
2007
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Radiative torques, due to the absorption and scattering of starlight, are thought to play a major role in the alignment of grains with the interstellar magnetic field. The absorption of radiation also gives rise to recoil torques, associated with the photoelectric effect and photodesorption. The recoil torques are much more difficult to model and compute than the direct radiative torque. Here, we consider the relatively simple case of a spheroidal grain. Given our best estimates for the photoelectric yield and other relevant grain physical properties, we find that the recoil torques contribute at the 10% level or less compared with the direct radiative torque. We recommend that the recoil torques not be included in models of radiation-driven grain alignment at this time. However, additional experimental characterization of the surface properties and photoelectric yield for sub-micron grains is needed to better quantify the magnitude of these torques.
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In the previous papers in this series, we found that radiative torques can play a major role in the alignment of grains with the interstellar magnetic field. Since the radiative torques can drive the grains to suprathermal rotational speeds, in previous work we made the simplifying assumption that the grain principal axis of greatest moment of inertia is always parallel to the grain angular momentum. This enabled us to describe many of the features of the grain dynamics. However, this assumption fails when the grains enter periods of thermal rotation, which occur naturally in the radiative torque alignment scenario. In the present paper, we relax this assumption and explore the consequences for the grain dynamics. We develop a treatment to follow the grain dynamics including thermal fluctuations and ``thermal flipping, and show results for one illustrative example. By comparing with a treatment without thermal fluctuations, we see that inclusion of thermal fluctuations can lead to qualitative changes in the grain dynamics. In a future installment in this series, we will use the more complete dynamical treatment developed here to perform a systematic study of grain alignment by radiative torques.
Photoelectric emission from dust plays an important role in grain charging and gas heating. To date, detailed models of these processes have focused primarily on grains exposed to soft radiation fields. We provide new estimates of the photoelectric yield for neutral and charged carbonaceous and silicate grains, for photon energies exceeding 20 eV. We include the ejection of electrons from both the band structure of the material and the inner shells of the constituent atoms, as well as Auger and secondary electron emission. We apply the model to estimate gas heating rates in planetary nebulae and grain charges in the outflows of broad absorption line quasars. For these applications, secondary emission can be neglected; the combined effect of inner shell and Auger emission is small, though not always negligible. Finally, we investigate the survivability of dust entrained in quasar outflows. The lack of nuclear reddening in broad absorption line quasars may be explained by sputtering of grains in the outflows.
Collisions of gas particles with a drifting grain give rise to a mechanical torque on the grain. Recent work by Lazarian & Hoang showed that mechanical torques might play a significant role in aligning helical grains along the interstellar magnetic field direction, even in the case of subsonic drift. We compute the mechanical torques on 13 different irregular grains and examine their resulting rotational dynamics, assuming steady rotation about the principal axis of greatest moment of inertia. We find that the alignment efficiency in the subsonic drift regime depends sensitively on the grain shape, with more efficient alignment for shapes with a substantial mechanical torque even in the case of no drift. The alignment is typically more efficient for supersonic drift. A more rigorous analysis of the dynamics is required to definitively appraise the role of mechanical torques in grain alignment.
Our understanding of the nature of interstellar grains has evolved considerably over the past half century with the present author and Fred Hoyle being intimately involved at several key stages of progress. The currently fashionable graphite-silicate-organic grain model has all its essential aspects unequivocally traceable to original peer-reviewed publications by the author and/or Fred Hoyle. The prevailing reluctance to accept these clear-cut priorities may be linked to our further work that argued for interstellar grains and organics to have a biological provenance - a position perceived as heretical. The biological model, however, continues to provide a powerful unifying hypothesis for a vast amount of otherwise disconnected and disparate astronomical data.
Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the alignment of grains with the interstellar magnetic field, including paramagnetic dissipation, radiative torques, and supersonic gas-grain streaming. These must compete with disaligning processes, including randomly directed torques arising from collisions with gas atoms. I describe a novel disalignment mechanism for grains that have a time-varying electric dipole moment and that drift across the magnetic field. Depending on the drift speed, this mechanism may yield a much shorter disalignment timescale than that associated with random gas atom impacts. For suprathermally rotating grains, the new disaligning process may be more potent for carbonaceous dust than for silicate dust. This could result in efficient alignment for silicate grains but poor alignment for carbonaceous grains.
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