Near-Infrared Circular Polarimetry and Correlation Diagrams in the Orion Becklin-Neugebauer/Kleinman-Low Region: Contribution of Dichroic Extinction

Abstract

We present a deep circular polarization image of the Orion BN/KL nebula in the K s band and correlations of circular polarization, linear polarization, and H-K s color representing extinction. The image of circular polarization clearly reveals the quadrupolar structure around the massive star IRc2, rather than BN. H-K s color is well correlated with circular polarization. A simple relation between dichroic extinction, color excess, circular and linear polarization is derived. The observed correlation between the Stokes parameters and the color excess agrees with the derived relation, and suggests a major contribution of dichroic extinction to the production of circular polarization in this region, indicating the wide existence of aligned grains.

Near-Infrared Circular Polarization Survey in Star-Forming Regions: Correlations and Trends

“…We have confirmed a region of CP in the OMC-1 field, showing a quadrupolar pattern, as found in previous studies (Bailey et al 1998;Buschermöhle et al 2005;Fukue et al 2009). The extent of the CP is ∼210 (0.45 pc).…”

“…Unsurprisingly, then, that the environments for dust grain alignments such as radiation field or magnetic field strength are different in each star-forming region. In previous studies, Fukue et al (2009) showed that there is a good correlation between CP (i.e., Stokes V) and H − K s color, with the latter used as a proxy for extinction. In addition, Kwon et al (2013) showed that high CP may be produced by scattering from the IRN followed by dichroic extinction by an optically thick foreground cloud containing aligned dust grains.…”

The effects of parent body processes on amino acids in carbonaceous chondrites

“…Polarized photons of synchrotron radiation derived from strong magnetic fields around neutron stars or scattered from interstellar dust in star forming regions have also been suggested as alternative sources of the amino acid asymmetry found in meteorites (Bonner 1991; Bailey et al. 1998; Fukue et al. 2009).…”

Extended High Circular Polarization in the Orion Massive Star Forming Region: Implications for the Origin of Homochirality in the Solar System

“…These observations and subsequent data reduction were the same as described in Fukue et al 2009 (the resultant stellar seeing size ∼1.5″), although their observations focus just on the BN/KL region. The estimated uncertainties in the degrees of CPL range from ∼0.3% to ∼1% close to the corners of the CP image.…”

“…CP imaging of the Orion BN/KL region show that the quadrupolar structure is centered around the young star IRc2, which appears to be dominant for the large CP (Buschermohle et al 2005; Fukue et al 2009). The spatial extent of high CP emission and the degree to which highly polarized radiation interacts with other young stars can only be investigated by extending the spatial coverage of the observations.…”