Polarization, Polarizing Efficiency, and Grain alignment towards the direction of the cluster NGC 2345

TL;DR

This study uses optical polarimetric observations to analyze dust grain alignment and properties towards NGC 2345, revealing how local radiation influences grain alignment and size distribution within the cluster.

Contribution

It provides new insights into dust grain alignment mechanisms and dust property variations in the direction of NGC 2345 using multi-band polarimetric data.

Findings

Dust grains beyond 1.2 kpc are aligned with the Galactic magnetic field.

Grain size decreases and alignment efficiency increases towards the cluster core.

Polarizing efficiency is close to the Galactic average.

Abstract

We have investigated the grain alignment and dust properties towards the direction of the cluster NGC 2345 using the multi-band optical polarimetric observations. For the majority of the stars, the observed polarization is found to be due to the interstellar medium with average values of maximum polarization and wavelength corresponding to it as 1.55% and 0.58 $\mu m$, respectively. This reveals a similar size distribution of dust grains to that in the general interstellar medium in the direction of NGC 2345. Alteration of dust properties near the distance of 1.2 kpc towards the direction of NGC 2345 has been noticed. The dust grains located beyond this distance are found to be aligned with the Galactic magnetic field, whereas a dispersion in orientation of the dust grains lying in the foreground of this distance is found. Polarizing efficiency of grains in this direction is found to be close to the average efficiency for our Galaxy. The decreased grain size along with the increased polarizing efficiency towards the core region of the cluster indicates the local radiation field is higher within the cluster which is responsible for the increased alignment efficiency of small grains. The wavelength of maximum polarization (associated with the average size of aligned grains) is also found to increase with extinction and reduces with the increase in polarizing efficiency, which can be explained by the radiative torque alignment mechanism.