THE ALIGNMENT OF THE POLARIZATION OF HERBIG Ae/Be STARS WITH THE INTERSTELLAR MAGNETIC FIELD

Journal Article · Sat Jun 20 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/698/2/2031; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21307708

Rodrigues, Claudia V ^[1]; Sartori, MarIlia J ^[2]; Gregorio-Hetem, Jane

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1. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais/MCT, Av. dos Astronautas, 1758, 12227-010, Sao Jose dos Campos, SP (Brazil)
2. Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofsica/MCT, 37504-364, Itajuba, MG (Brazil)

We present a study of the correlation between the direction of the symmetry axis of the circumstellar material around intermediate mass young stellar objects and that of the interstellar magnetic field. We use CCD polarimetric data on 100 Herbig Ae/Be stars. A large number of them show intrinsic polarization, which indicates that their circumstellar envelopes are not spherical. The interstellar magnetic field direction is estimated from the polarization of field stars. There is an alignment between the position angle of the Herbig Ae/Be star polarization and that of the field stars for the most polarized objects. This may be an evidence that the ambient interstellar magnetic field plays a role in shaping the circumstellar material around young stars of intermediate mass and/or in defining their angular momentum axis.

• OSTI ID: 21307708
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 698; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
CORRELATIONS
INTERSTELLAR MAGNETIC FIELDS
MASS
POLARIZATION
STARS
SYMMETRY