SIMPLIFI-Study of Interstellar Magnetic Polarization: A Legacy Investigation of Filaments. II. Enhancement of grain alignment near embedded protostars in the DR21 Ridge

TL;DR

This study confirms that local radiation from embedded protostars enhances dust grain alignment in dense molecular clouds, supporting the Radiative Torque Alignment theory through SOFIA/HAWC+ observations of the DR21 region.

Contribution

It provides observational evidence for increased grain alignment near protostars, validating a key prediction of the Radiative Torque Alignment theory in high-mass star forming regions.

Findings

Significant polarization fractions observed at high intensities.

Polarization trend flattens at high intensity levels.

Model predictions align with observed polarization trends.

Abstract

Thermal dust continuum polarimetry is a powerful indirect probe of magnetic field geometry in dense molecular clouds while at the same time providing information on the alignment of dust grains with the magnetic field. The leading theory of grain alignment, Radiative Torque Alignment (RAT), has been successful in explaining a variety of observations, including the loss of polarization fraction toward high column densities. One prediction of RAT is that an increase in grain alignment efficiency should be observed in the environments surrounding protostars, due to radiation from the embedded source. However, observational confirmation of this prediction remains scarce. In this study, we sought to test the theoretical prediction of enhanced grain alignment near protostars in the high-mass star forming region DR21 using 214 $\mu m$ SOFIA/HAWC+ observations. We investigated the correlation of the polarization fraction of dust emission, $p$, and the polarization angular dispersion, $S$, with respect to total intensity. We also probed intrinsic dust polarization properties using the product $S\times p$ as a proxy. We detected significant polarization fractions even at the highest intensities, where strong depolarization is typically expected. The polarization fraction-intensity trend flattens at $I > 1.6^{+0.3}_{-0.3} \times 10^4$ MJy/sr ($N_{H_2}$ $\sim 2\times 10^{23}$ ${cm}^{-2}$). We compared the observed trends with predictions from an analytical model of a centrally heated envelope surrounding an embedded luminous protostar. The predictions from the simple model agree well with the observed trends. Our results provide strong support for enhancement of grain alignment by local radiation from embedded sources.