Dust Polarization Toward Embedded Protostars in Ophiuchus with ALMA. I. VLA 1623

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution ALMA dust polarization observations to analyze magnetic fields and dust grain alignment in the protostellar system VLA 1623, revealing complex polarization structures and grain growth evidence.

Contribution

First high-resolution polarization imaging of VLA 1623 revealing detailed magnetic field morphology and dust grain alignment mechanisms.

Findings

Inner disks show polarization consistent with dust scattering.

Extended dust ring exhibits azimuthal polarization morphology.

Large dust grains (~100 μm) grow rapidly at large scales.

Abstract

We present high resolution (~ 30 au) ALMA Band 6 dust polarization observations of VLA 1623. The VLA 1623 data resolve compact ~ 40 au inner disks around the two protobinary sources, VLA 1623-A and VLA 1623-B, and also an extended ~ 180 au ring of dust around VLA 1623-A. This dust ring was previously identified as a large disk in lower-resolution observations. We detect highly structured dust polarization toward the inner disks and the extended ring with typical polarization fractions ~ 1.7% and ~ 2.4%, respectively. The two components also show distinct polarization morphologies. The inner disks have uniform polarization angles aligned with their minor axes. This morphology is consistent with expectations from dust scattering. By contrast, the extended dust ring has an azimuthal polarization morphology not previously seen in lower-resolution observations. We find that our observations are well fit by a static, oblate spheroid model with a flux-frozen, poloidal magnetic field. We propose that the polarization traces magnetic grain alignment likely from flux freezing on large scales and magnetic diffusion on small scales. Alternatively, the azimuthal polarization may be attributed to grain alignment by the anisotropic radiation field. If the grains are radiatively aligned, then our observations indicate that large (~ 100 um) dust grains grow quickly at large angular extents. Finally, we identify significant proper motion of VLA 1623 using our observations and those in the literature. This result indicates that the proper motion of nearby systems must be corrected for when combining ALMA data from different epochs.