Magnetic alignment of interstellar dust grains for dominating magnetic effects

The asymptotic behavior of the degree of alignment of interstellar dust grains, when magnetic rather than collisional effects predominate is studied for the cases of spheroids and square prisms with various elongations and values of the grain internal temperature/gas temperature ratio. It is found t...

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Veröffentlicht in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 1983-04, Vol.120 (1), p.156-163
1. Verfasser: Cugnon, P
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The asymptotic behavior of the degree of alignment of interstellar dust grains, when magnetic rather than collisional effects predominate is studied for the cases of spheroids and square prisms with various elongations and values of the grain internal temperature/gas temperature ratio. It is found that the Monte Carlo calculations of Purcell and Spitzer (1971) exhibit good convergence toward the presently calculated asymptotic values. This convergence is rather fast for prolate grains, implying that in the case of high magnetic distributions, the degree of alignment is independent of magnetic field strength. Temperature dependence then becomes the most relevant property of the phenomenon.
ISSN:0004-6361