Synthesized grain size distribution in the interstellar medium

TL;DR

This study constructs a synthetic grain size distribution for the interstellar medium by combining processes like growth, destruction, and shattering, successfully reproducing the observed Milky Way grain distribution and extinction curve.

Contribution

It introduces a synthetic model combining key grain processing mechanisms to replicate the Milky Way's grain size distribution and extinction properties.

Findings

The synthetic distribution reproduces the observed MRN distribution.

Small grain deficiency from growth and destruction is offset by shattering.

The model explains the Milky Way extinction curve.

Abstract

We examine a synthetic way of constructing the grain size distribution in the interstellar medium (ISM). First we formulate a synthetic grain size distribution composed of three grain size distributions processed with the following mechanisms that govern the grain size distribution in the Milky Way: (i) grain growth by accretion and coagulation in dense clouds, (ii) supernova shock destruction by sputtering in diffuse ISM, and (iii) shattering driven by turbulence in diffuse ISM. Then, we examine if the observational grain size distribution in the Milky Way (called MRN) is successfully synthesized or not. We find that the three components actually synthesize the MRN grain size distribution in the sense that the deficiency of small grains by (i) and (ii) is compensated by the production of small grains by (iii). The fraction of each {contribution} to the total grain processing of (i), (ii), and (iii) (i.e., the relative importance of the three {contributions} to all grain processing mechanisms) is 30-50%, 20-40%, and 10-40%, respectively. We also show that the Milky Way extinction curve is reproduced with the synthetic grain size distributions.