Thermal Flipping and Thermal Trapping -- New Elements in Dust Grain Dynamics

Since the classical work by Purcell (1979) it has been generally accepted that most interstellar grains rotate suprathermally. Suprathermally rotating grains would be nearly perfectly aligned with the magnetic field by paramagnetic dissipation if not for ``crossovers'', intervals of low angular velocity resulting from reversals of the torques responsible for suprathermal rotation; during crossovers grains are susceptible to disalignment by random impulses. Lazarian and Draine (1997) identified thermal fluctuations within grain material as an important component of crossover dynamics. For grains of size less than 0.1 micron, these fluctuations ensure good correlation of angular momentum before and after crossover resulting in good alignment, in accord with observations of starlight polarization. In the present paper we discuss two new processes which are important for the dynamics of grains with a<0.1 micron. The first -- ``thermal flipping'' -- offers a way for small grains to bypass the period of greatly reduced angular momentum which would otherwise take place during a crossover, thereby enhancing the alignment of small grains. The second effect -- ``thermal trapping'' -- arises when thermal flipping becomes rapid enough to prevent the systematic torques from driving the grain to suprathermal rotation. This effect acts to reduce the alignment of small grains. The observed variation of grain alignment with grain size would then result from a combination of the thermal flipping process -- which suppresses suprathermal rotation of small grains -- and due to molecular hydrogen formation and starlight -- which drive large grains to suprathermal rotation rates.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, submitted ApJ

Studying Turbulence using Doppler-broadened lines: Velocity Coordinate Spectrum

We discuss a new technique for studying astrophysical turbulence that utilizes the statistics of Doppler-broadened spectral lines. The technique relates the power Velocity Coordinate Spectrum (VCS), i.e. the spectrum of fluctuations measured along the velocity axis in Position-Position-Velocity (PPV) data cubes available from observations, to the underlying power spectra of the velocity/density fluctuations. Unlike the standard spatial spectra, that are function of angular wavenumber, the VCS is a function of the velocity wave number k_v ~ 1/v. We show that absorption affects the VCS to a higher degree for small k_v and obtain the criteria for disregarding the absorption effects for turbulence studies at large k_v. We consider the retrieval of turbulence spectra from observations for high and low spatial resolution observations and find that the VCS allows one to study turbulence even when the emitting turbulent volume is not spatially resolved. This opens interesting prospects for using the technique for extragalactic research. We show that, while thermal broadening interferes with the turbulence studies using the VCS, it is possible to separate thermal and non-thermal contributions. This allows a new way of determining the temperature of the interstellar gas using emission and absorption spectral lines.Comment: 27 page, 3 figures, content extended and presentation reorganized to correspond to the version accepted to Ap

Turbulence Spectra from Doppler-shifted Spectral Lines

Turbulence is a key element of the dynamics of astrophysical fluids, including those of interstellar medium, clusters of galaxies and circumstellar regions. Turbulent motions induce Doppler shifts of observable emission and absorption lines. In the review we discuss new techniques that relate the spectra of underlying velocity turbulence and spectra of Doppler-shifted lines. In particular, the Velocity-Channel Analysis (VCA) makes use of the channel maps, while the Velocity Coordinate Spectrum (VCS) utilizes the fluctuations measured along the velocity axis of the Position-Position Velocity (PPV) data cubes. Both techniques have solid foundations based on analytical calculations as well as on numerical testings. Among the two the VCS, which has been developed quite recently, has two advantages. First of all, it is applicable to turbulent volumes that are not spatially resolved. Second, it can be used with absorption lines that do not provide good spatial sampling of different lags over the image of turbulent object. In fact, numerical testing shows that measurements of Doppler shifted absorption lines over a few directions is sufficient for a reliable recovering of the underlying spectrum of the turbulence. Our comparison of the VCA and the VCS with a more traditional technique of Velocity Centroids, shows that the former two techniques recover reliably the spectra of supersonic turbulence, while the Velocity Centroids may have advantages for studying subsonic turbulence. In parallel with theoretical and numerical work on the VCA and the VCS, the techniques have been applied to spectroscopic observations. We discuss results on astrophysical turbulence obtained with the VCA and the VCS.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, review talk at 18 International Conference on Spectral Line Shapes, to be published by AI

Astrophysical Implications of Turbulent Reconnection: from cosmic rays to star formation

Turbulent reconnection allows fast magnetic reconnection of astrophysical magnetic fields. This entails numerous astrophysical implications and opens new ways to approach long standing problems. I briefly discuss a model of turbulent reconnection within which the stochasticity of 3D magnetic field enables rapid reconnection through both allowing multiple reconnection events to take place simultaneously and by restricting the extension of current sheets. In fully ionized gas the model in Lazarian and Vishniac 99 predicts reconnection rates that depend only on the intensity of turbulence. In partially ionized gas a modification of the original model in Lazarian, Vishniac and Cho 04 predicts the reconnection rates that, apart from the turbulence intensity depend on the degree of ionization. In both cases the reconnection may be slow and fast depending on the level of turbulence in the system. As the result, the reconnection gets bursty, which provides a possible explanation to Solar flares and possibly to gamma ray busts. The implications of the turbulent reconnection model have not been yet studied in sufficient detail. I discuss first order Fermi acceleration of cosmic ray that takes place as the oppositely directed magnetic fluxes move together. This acceleration would work in conjunction with the second order Fermi acceleration that is caused by turbulence in the reconnection region. In partially ionized gas the stochastic reconnection enables fast removal of magnetic flux from star forming molecular clouds.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, invited review for "Magnetic Fields in the Universe: from laboratory and stars to Primordial Structure