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arXiv · 1610.07906

The Mid-Infrared Polarization of the Herbig Ae Star WL 16: An Interstellar Origin?

Han Zhang·Charles M. Telesco·Eric Pantin·Dan Li·Christopher M. Wright·Naibí Mariñas·Peter Barnes·Aigen Li·Christopher Packham
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Abstract

We present high-resolution (0".4) mid-infrared (mid-IR) polarimetric images and spectra of WL 16, a Herbig Ae star at a distance of 125 pc. WL 16 is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk of $\sim$ 900 AU in diameter, making it one of the most extended Herbig Ae/Be disks as seen in the mid-IR. The star is behind, or embedded in, the $ρ$ Ophiuchus molecular cloud, and obscured by 28 magnitudes of extinction at optical wavelengths by the foreground cloud. Mid-IR polarization of WL 16, mainly arises from aligned elongated dust grains present along the line of sight, suggesting a uniform morphology of polarization vectors with an orientation of 33\degr (East from North) and a polarization fraction of $\sim$ 2.0\%. This orientation is consistent with previous polarimetric surveys in the optical and near-IR bands to probe large-scale magnetic fields in the Ophiuchus star formation region, indicating that the observed mid-IR polarization toward WL 16 is produced by the dichroic absorption of magnetically aligned foreground dust grains by a uniform magnetic field. Using polarizations of WL 16 and Elias 29, a nearby polarization standard star, we constrain the polarization efficiency, \textit{$p_{10.3}/A_{10.3}$}, for the dust grains in the $ρ$ Ophiuchus molecular cloud to be $\sim$ 1.0\% mag$^{-1}$. WL 16 has polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission features detected at 8.6, 11.2, 12.0, and 12.7 $μ$m by our spectroscopic data, and we find an anti-correlation between the PAH surface brightness and the PAH ionization fraction between the NW and SW sides of the disk.

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Han Zhang, Charles M. Telesco, Eric Pantin, Dan Li, Christopher M. Wright, Naibí Mariñas, Peter Barnes, Aigen Li, Christopher Packham. 2016-10-25. The Mid-Infrared Polarization of the Herbig Ae Star WL 16: An Interstellar Origin?. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstw2761

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