Department of Physics
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Astronomy Colloquium
Polarized FIR Emission from T Tauri Disks
Date: Tuesday, April 14th
Time: 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Place: 6515 Sterling Hall
Speaker: Jungyeon Cho, UW Astronomy Dept
Abstract: Recently far infra-red (FIR) polarization of the 850 micron continuum emission from T Tauri disks has been detected. The observed degree of polarization is around 3 % or less. Since thermal emission from dust grains dominates the spectral energy distribution at the FIR regime, dust grains might be the cause of the polarization. In the presence of magnetic field, dust grains
can get aligned by radiative torque and the aligned grains can produce polarized emission in infrared wavelengths. We explore alignment of dust grains by radiative torque in T Tauri disks and provide predictions for polarized emission for disks viewed at different wavelengths and viewing angles. Our study indicates
that multi-frequency infrared polarimetric studies of protostellar disks can provide good insights into the details of their magnetic structure. We also introduce the result and implications of a more recent observation at 350 microns.
Host: Professor Alex Lazarian
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