Microwave Emission from Interstellar Dust Grains
Bruce T. Draine, Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
There are three processes which can lead to microwave emission from
interstellar dust grains:
- thermal fluctuations in the (electric) polarization of the grain material -- this
is the process responsible for "vibrational emission" in the
mid- and far-infrared.
Extrapolating from
the far-infrared and submm, this varies as I_nu propto nu^1.7 B_nu(T_d),
where T_d approx 20K (see, e.g., Draine 1999, in 3K Cosmology, ed. F.
Melchiorri, AIP).
- thermal fluctuations in the
magnetization of possible magnetic grain materials
(Draine & Lazarian 1999, Astrophysical Journal, 512, in press).
- rotational emission
from very rapidly rotating ultrasmall grains
(Draine & Lazarian 1998a, Astrophysical Journal (Letters), 494, L19;
Draine & Lazarian 1998b, Astrophysical Journal, 508, 157)
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