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Low-energy spin-polarized electrons (SPEs) are thought to cause symmetry breaking and could explain the origin of homochirality of prebiotic molecules such as amino acids and sugars. Here we study the effect of cosmic rays (CRs) on the emission of SPEs from aligned grains in dense protostellar environments and explore the SPE effects on chiral asymmetry of prebiotic molecules. We first show that icy grains in protostellar environments can align with magnetic fields due to magnetically enhanced radiative torque mechanism. We then study the production of thermal electrons by CR ionization of the H$_2$ gas and the CR-induced UV radiation using the attenuated CR spectra in dense cores obtained from a continous slowing down model. Next, we show that thermal electrons with initial random spins captured by aligned grains will quickly become spin-polarized due to the Barnett effect, converting unpolarized incident electrons into SPEs. We calculate the rate of photoemission of such SPEs by CRs-induced UV radiation and secondary electron emission from aligned grains and find that the photoemission by CRs-induced UV radiation is dominant. Finally, we calculate the total production rate of SPEs inside aligned dust grains by CRs. Low-energy secondary SPEs from aligned grains induced by CRs would cause the chiral asymmetry of chiral prebiotic molecules formed in the ice mantle of aligned grains, in analogous to UV circularly polarized light. We propose that amino acids and sugars of chiral assymmetry detected in meteorite/asteroids/comets might be formed in the ice mantle of grains under the irradiation of SPEs released from aligned grains by CRs in protostellar environments., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures. To be submitted, comments welcome

Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) has revolutionized the field of dust polarization in protoplanetary disks across multiple wavelengths. Previous observations and empirical modeling suggested multiple mechanisms of dust polarization toward HL Tau, including grain alignment and dust scattering. However, a detailed modeling of dust polarization based on grain alignment physics is not yet available. Here, using our updated POLARIS code, we perform numerical modeling of dust polarization arising from both grain alignment by Magnetically Enhanced Radiative Torque (MRAT) mechanism and self-scattering to reproduce the HL Tau polarization observed at three wavelengths 0.87, 1.3, and 3.1$\,$mm. Our modeling results show that the observed multi-wavelength polarization could be reproduced only when large grains contain embedded iron inclusions and those with slow internal relaxation must have wrong internal alignment (i.e., the grain's major axis parallel to its angular momentum). The abundance of iron embedded inside grains in the form of clusters is constrained to be $\gtrsim 16$%, and the number of iron atoms per cluster is $N_{\rm cl} \sim 9\times10^2$. Maximum grain sizes probed at wavelengths $\lambda$ = 0.87, 1.3, and 3.1$\,$mm are constrained at $\sim$ 60, 80, and 90$\,\mu$m, respectively., Comment: Published in ApJ

The unique biosignature of life on Earth is the homochirality of organic compounds such as amino acids, proteins, and sugars. High-energy spin-polarized (spin-up or spin-down) electrons (SPEs) from the $\beta$ decay of radioactive nuclei were proposed as a source of symmetry breaking, leading to homochirality; however, their exact role is much debated. Here we propose magnetically aligned dust grains as a new source of SPEs due to photoemission of electrons having aligned spins by the Barnett effect. For the interstellar UV radiation field of strength $G_{\rm UV}$, we found that the SPE emission rate is $\Gamma_{\rm pe}^{\rm SPE}\sim 10^{-14}G_{\rm UV}$ electrons per second per H, the fraction of spin-polarized to total photoelectrons is $\sim 10\%$, and the SPE yield (photoelectron number per UV photon) can reach $\sim 1\%$, using the modern theory of grain alignment. SPEs emitted from aligned grains could play an important role in chiral-induced spin selectivity-driven reduction chemistry in the icy grain mantles, producing an enantiomer excess of chiral molecules formed on the grain mantle. Finally, we suggest magnetically aligned grains could directly impact the enantioselectivity through the chiral-induced spin-selective adsorption effect and exchange interaction. We estimated the disalignment of electron spins and depolarization by elastic scattering using the Mott theory and found that these effects are negligible for low-energy SPEs, so that the spins of SPEs remain well aligned during their jurney through dust grains and the gas. Our proposed mechanism might explain the chiral asymmetry of prebiotic molecules detected in numerous comets, asteroids, and meteorites., Comment: 6 figures, 20 pages, accepted to publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Rapidly spinning magnetic grains can acquire large magnetic dipole moments due to the Barnett effect. Here we study the new effect of Barnett magnetic dipole-dipole interaction on grain-grain collisions and grain growth, assuming grains spun up by radiative torques. We find that the collision rate between grains having embedded iron inclusions can be significantly enhanced due to Barnett magnetic dipole-dipole interaction when grains rotate suprathermally by radiative torques. We discuss the implications of enhanced collision rate for grain growth and destruction in the circumstellar envelope of evolved stars, photodissociation regions, and protostellar environments. Our results first reveal the importance of the dust magnetic properties and the local radiation field on grain growth and destruction., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

We study the physical processes inducing the alignment of the grain axis of maximum inertia moment with the angular momentum (${\bf J}$, i.e., internal alignment) and of ${\bf J}$ with the magnetic field (i.e., external alignment) of very large grains (VLGs, of radius $a>10\mu$m) using the grain alignment framework based on radiative torques (RATs) and mechanical torques (METs). We derive analytical formulae for critical sizes of grain alignment, assuming that grains are aligned at both low$-J$ and high$-J$ attractors by RATs (METs). For protostellar cores, we find that super-Barnett relaxation can induce efficient internal alignment for VLGs with large iron inclusions aligned at high$-J$ attractors by RATs (METs). In contrast, inelastic relaxation can be efficient for VLGs made of any composition. For external alignment, we find that VLGs with iron inclusions aligned at high$-J$ attractors can have magnetic alignment by RATs ($B-$RAT) or METs ($B-$ MET), enabling dust polarization as a reliable tracer of magnetic fields in such dense regions. Still, grains at low$-J$ attractors or grains without iron inclusions have alignment along the radiation direction ($k-$RAT) or gas flow ($v-$MET). For protostellar disks, we find that super-Barnett relaxation can be efficient for grains with large iron inclusions in the outer disk thanks to spinup by METs, but inelastic relaxation is inefficient. VLGs aligned at low-J attractors can have $k-$RAT ($v-$MET) alignment, but grains aligned at high$-J$ attractors have likely $B-$RAT ($B-$MET) alignment. Grain alignment by METs appears to be more important than RATs in protostellar disks., Comment: 43 pages, 17 figures, Table of notations is added. Version accepted

Dust grains drift through the interstellar medium (ISM) and are aligned with the magnetic field. Here we study the effect of grain alignment and grain motion on grain growth in molecular clouds (MCs). We first discuss the characteristic timescales of alignment of the grain axis of maximum inertia ($\hat{a}_{1}$) with its angular momentum (${\bf J}$) (i.e., {\it internal alignment}) and alignment of ${\bf J}$ with the magnetic field (${\bf B}$, i.e., {\it external alignment}). We determine the maximum grain size with efficient internal ($a_{\rm max,aJ}$) and external alignment ($a_{\rm max,JB}$) for composite grains. For the MC density of $n_{\rm H}\sim 10^{3}-10^{8}\rm cm^{-3}$, we find that external alignment can occur for very large grains, but internal alignment only occurs for grains smaller than $a_{\rm max,aJ}\sim 2\mu m$. The presence of iron clusters within dust grains or suprathermal rotation increase $a_{\max,aJ}$ to $\sim 10-50\mu m$. We then study the growth of aligned grains drifting through the gas. Due to the motion of aligned grains across the magnetic field, gas accretion would increase the grain elongation rather than decrease as expected from the growth of randomly oriented grains. Coagulation by grain collisions also increases grain elongation, leading to the increase of elongation with the grain size. The coagulation of aligned grains forms dust aggregates that contain elongated binaries comprising a pair of grains with parallel short axes. Grains within dust aggregates in 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko obtained by {\it Rosetta} have the grain elongation increasing with the grain radius, implying that such dust aggregates might form from aligned grains., Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures; Revised version after the referee's report

We study the destruction and modification of icy interstellar objects by cosmic rays and gas collisions. Using the cosmic-ray flux measured in the local interstellar medium as well as inferred from gamma-ray observations at the different galactocentric radii, we find that cosmic-ray erosion is significant for interstellar objects made of common types of ices. Interestingly, cosmic-ray heating might destroy icy interstellar objects very efficiently such that the initial size of an N$_2$ fragment as suggested by \citet{jackson2021} to explain the composition of `Oumuamua should be at least 0.5 km in size in order to survive the journey of about 0.5 Gyr in the ISM and might be even larger if it originated from a region with an enhanced cosmic-ray flux. This implies an initial N$_2$ mass that is at least an order of magnitude larger than the final value, exacerbating the N$_2$ mass budget deficiency for explaining `Oumuamua. The erosion time due to cosmic-ray heating and gas collisions also allows us to set approximate limits on the initial size for other types of icy interstellar objects, e.g. composed of CO, CO$_2$, or CH$_4$. For a given initial size, we constrain the maximum distance to the birth site for interstellar objects with different speeds. We also find that cosmic-ray and gas heating could entirely modify the ice structure before destroying interstellar objects., Comment: 7 pages and 3 figures

Dust clouds are ubiquitous in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters and affect their observable properties. The alignment of dust grains in the clouds and resulting dust polarization is a promising method to study magnetic fields of exoplanets. Moreover, the grain size distribution plays an important role in physical and chemical processes in the atmospheres, which is rather uncertain in atmospheres. In this paper, we first study grain alignment of dust grains in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters by RAdiative Torques (RATs). We find that silicate grains can be aligned by RATs with the magnetic fields (B-RAT) due to strong magnetic fields of hot Jupiters, but carbonaceous grains of diamagnetic material tend to be aligned with the radiation direction (k-RAT). At a low altitude of $r<2R_{\rm p}$ with $R_{\rm p}$ being the planet radius, only large grains can be aligned, but tiny grains of $a\sim 0.01\mu$m can be aligned at a high altitude of $r>3R_{\rm p}$. We then study rotational disruption of dust grains by the RAdiative Torque Disruption (RATD) mechanism. We find that large grains can be disrupted by RATD into smaller sizes. Grains of high tensile strength are disrupted at an altitude of $r>3R_{\rm p}$, but weak grains can be disrupted at a lower altitude. We suggest that the disruption of large grains into smaller ones can facilitate dust clouds to escape to high altitudes due to lower gravity and may explain the presence of high-altitude clouds in hot Jupiter as well as super-puff atmospheres., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures; comments welcome

We reveal a deep connection between alignment of dust grains by RAdiative torques (RATs) and MEchanical Torques (METs) and rotational disruption of grains introduced by Hoang et al. (2019). The disruption of grains happens if they have attractor points corresponding to high angular momentum (high-J). We introduce {\it fast disruption} for grains that are directly driven to the high-J attractor on a timescale of spin-up, and {\it slow disruption} for grains that are first moved to the low-J attractor and gradually transported to the high-J attractor by gas collisions. The enhancement of grain magnetic susceptibility via iron inclusions expands the parameter space for high-J attractors and increases percentage of grains experiencing the disruption. The increase in the magnitude of RATs or METs can increase the efficiency of fast disruption, but counter-intuitively, decreases the effect of slow disruption by forcing grains towards low-J attractors, whereas the increase in gas density accelerates disruption by faster transporting grains to the high-J attractor. We also show that disruption induced by RATs and METs depends on the angle between the magnetic field and the anisotropic flow. We find that pinwheel torques can increase the efficiency of {\it fast disruption} but may decrease the efficiency of {\it slow disruption} by delaying the transport of grains from the low-J to high-J attractors via gas collisions. The selective nature of the rotational disruption opens a possibility of observational testing of grain composition as well as physical processes of grain alignment., Comment: 32 pages, 14 figures. Accepted to ApJ

Dust polarization induced by aligned grains is widely used to study magnetic fields in various environments, including star-forming regions. However, the question of to what optical depth grain alignment still exists in a dense molecular cloud (MC) is unclear. In this paper, we aim to achieve analytical formulae for the minimum size of aligned grains ($a_{\rm align}$) and rotational disruption ($a_{\rm disr}$) by RAdiative Torques (RATs) as a function of the local physical parameters within dense MCs. We first find the analytical approximations for the radiation strength and the mean wavelength of the attenuated radiation field in a dense MC without and with embedded stars and then derive analytical formulae for $a_{\rm align}$ and $a_{\rm disr}$ as functions of the visual extinction $A_{V}$ and the gas density. We find that within a starless core of density $n_{\rm H}\sim 10^{5}\rm cm^{-3}$, grains of size $a<0.25\mu m$ can be aligned up to $A_{V}\sim 5$ by RATs, whereas micron-sized grains can still be aligned at $A_{V}\sim 50$. The increase in the alignment size with $A_{V}$ can explain the presence of polarization holes observed toward starless cores. For MCs with an embedded protostar, we find that the efficiency of both alignment and rotational disruption increases toward the protostar due to the increasing radiation strength. Such a disruption effect results in the decrease of the polarization degree with $A_{V}$ or emission intensity, which reproduces the popular polarization holes observed toward the location of protostars. Finally, we derive the formula for the maximum $A_{V}$ where grain alignment still exists in a starless core and discuss its potential for constraining grain growth., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, submitted to ApJ

We calculate the surface temperature and the resulting brightness of sub-relativistic objects moving through the Solar system due to collisional heating by gas and radiative heating by solar radiation. The thermal emission from objects of size $\gtrsim 100$ m and speed of $\gtrsim 0.1c$, can be detected by the upcoming {\it James Webb Space Telescope} out to a distance of $\sim 100$ au. Future surveys could therefore set interesting limits on the abundance of fast-moving interstellar objects or spacecraft., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; submitted

Dust is an essential component of the interstellar medium (ISM) and plays an important role in many different astrophysical processes and phenomena. Traditionally, dust grains are known to be destroyed by thermal sublimation, Coulomb explosions, sputtering, and shattering. The first two mechanisms arise from the interaction of dust with intense radiation fields and high-energy photons (extreme UV), which work in a limited astrophysical environment. The present review is focused on a new destruction mechanism present in the {\it dust-radiation interaction} that is effective in a wide range of radiation fields and has ubiquitous applications in astrophysics. We first describe this new mechanism of grain destruction, namely rotational disruption induced by Radiative Torques (RATs) or RAdiative Torque Disruption (RATD). We then discuss rotational disruption of nanoparticles by mechanical torques due to supersonic motion of grains relative to the ambient gas, which is termed MEchanical Torque Disruption (METD). These two new mechanisms modify properties of dust and ice (e.g., size distribution and mass), which affects observational properties, including dust extinction, thermal and nonthermal emission, and polarization. We present various applications of the RATD and METD mechanisms for different environments, including the ISM, star-forming regions, astrophysical transients, and surface astrochemistry., Comment: 65 pages, 32 figures; Final Version; Invited Review for "Galaxies"

The first interstellar object observed in our solar system, 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua), exhibited a number of peculiar properties, including extreme elongation and acceleration excess. Recently, \cite{Seligman:2020vb} proposed that the object was made out of molecular hydrogen (H$_{2}$) ice. The question is whether H$_2$ objects could survive their travel from the birth sites to the solar system. Here we study destruction processes of icy H$_2$ objects through their journey from giant molecular clouds (GMCs) to the interstellar medium (ISM) and the solar system, owing to interstellar radiation, gas and dust, and cosmic rays. We find that thermal sublimation due to heating by starlight can destroy `Oumuamua-size objects in less than 10 Myr. Thermal sublimation by collisional heating in GMCs could destroy H$_2$ objects of `Oumuamua-size before their escape into the ISM. Most importantly, the formation of icy grains rich in H$_2$ is unlikely to occur in dense environments because collisional heating raises the temperature of the icy grains, so that thermal sublimation rapidly destroys the H$_2$ mantle before grain growth., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters on July 31, 2020

Comets provide unique information about the physical and chemical properties of the environment in which the Solar system was formed. Understanding how cometary dust and ice evolve under the effect of sunlight is essential for constraining nuclear structure and triggering mechanism of comet activity. In this paper, we first study rotational disruption of dust grains lifted by outgassing from comet nuclei by radiative torques (RATs). We find that composite grains could be rapidly disrupted into small fragments by the Radiative Torque Disruption (RATD) mechanism. We then study rotational desorption of ice grains by RATs and find that icy grains could be desorbed from large heliocentric distances, beyond the sublimation radius of water at $R_{\rm sub}(\H_{2}\O)\sim 3\AU$. We also calculate the production rate of water vapor versus the heliocentric distance of comets due to rotational desorption. Our results could explain the variation of dust properties and the presence of small grains frequently observed from cometary comae. Finally, we suggest that the activity of distant comets could be triggered by rotational disruption of grains and desorption of water ice grains at large heliocentric distances., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; accepted to ApJ

Planet 9 was proposed as an explanation for the clustering of orbits for some trans-Neuptunian objects. Recently, the use of a sub-relativistic spacecraft was proposed to indirectly probe Planet 9's gravitational influence. Here we study the effects of the drag and electromagnetic forces exerted on a sub-relativistic spacecraft by the interstellar medium (ISM) and compare these forces with the gravitational force induced by Planet 9. We find that the resulting noise due to density and magnetic fluctuations would dominate over Planet 9's gravitational signal at sub-relativistic speeds, $v\gtrsim 0.001~c$. We then identify the parameter space required to overcome the drag and magnetic noise from the ISM turbulence and enable the detection of Planet 9's gravity. Finally, we discuss practical strategies to mitigate the effect of the drag and electromagnetic forces., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures; accepted to ApJL

Dust and ice mantles on dust grains play an important role in various processes in protoplanetary disks (PPDs) around a young star, including planetesimal formation, surface chemistry, and being the reservoir of water in habitable zones. In this paper, we will perform two-dimensional modeling of rotational disruption of dust grains and ice mantles due to centrifugal force within suprathermally rotating grains spun-up by radiative torques for disks around T-Tauri and Herbig Ae/Be stars. We first study rotational disruption of large composite grains and find that large aggregates could be disrupted into individual nanoparticles via the RAdiative Torque Disruption (RATD) mechanism. We then study rotational desorption of ice mantles and ro-thermal desorption of molecules from the ice mantle. We will show that ice mantles in the warm surface layer and above of the disk can be disrupted into small icy fragments, followed by rapid evaporation of molecules. We suggest that the rotational disruption mechanism can replenish the ubiquitous presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrogen (PAHs)/ nanoparticles in the hot surface layers of PPDs as observed in mid-IR emission, which are presumably destroyed by extreme ultraviolet (UV) stellar photons. We show that the water snowline is more extended in the presence of rotational desorption, which would decrease the number of comets but increase the number of asteroids formed in the solar nebula. Finally, we suggest that the more efficient breakup of carbonaceous grains than silicates by RATD might resolve the carbon deficit problem measured on the Earth and rocky bodies., Comment: 25 pages, 18 figures, increased number of photon packages, conclusions unchanged. Accepted to ApJ

Grain surfaces play a central role in the formation and desorption of molecules in space. To form molecules on a grain surface, adsorbed species trapped in binding sites must be mobile and migrate to adjacent sites. Thermal hopping is a popular mechanism for the migration of adsorbed species when the grain surface is warmed up by stellar radiation. However, previous studies disregarded the fact that grains can be spun-up to suprathermal rotation by radiative torques (RATs) during grain heating process. To achieve an accurate model of surface astrochemistry, in this paper, we study the effect of grain suprathermal rotation by RATs on thermal hopping of adsorbed species on icy grain mantles. We find that centrifugal force due to grain suprathermal rotation can increase the mobility of radicals on/in the ice mantle compared to the prediction by thermal hopping, and we term this mechanism ro-thermal hopping. The rate of ro-thermal hopping depends both on the local radiation energy density (i.e., grain temperature) and gas density, whereas thermal hopping only depends on grain temperature. We calculate the decrease in grain temperature required by ro-thermal hopping to produce the same hopping rate as thermal hopping and find that it increases with increasing the diffusion energy and decreasing the gas density. We finally study the effect of grain suprathermal rotation on the segregation of ice mixtures and find that ro-thermal segregation of CO$_2$ from H$_2$O-CO$_2$ ices can occur at much lower temperatures than thermal segregation reported by experiments. Our results indicate that grain suprathermal rotation can enhance mobility, formation, desorption, and segregation of molecules in icy grain mantles., Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, to be submitted; comments are welcome

Dust grains moving at hypersonic velocities of $v_{d}\gtrsim 100\rm km~s^{-1}$ through an ambient gas are known to be destroyed by nonthermal sputtering. Yet, previous studies of nonthermal sputtering disregarded the fact that dust grains can be spun-up to suprathermal rotation by stochastic mechanical torques from gas-grain collisions. In this paper, we show that such grain suprathermal rotation can disrupt a small grain into small fragments because induced centrifugal stress exceeds the maximum tensile strength of grain material, $S_{\rm max}$. We term this mechanism {\it MEchanical Torque Disruption} (METD). We find that METD is more efficient than nonthermal sputtering in destroying smallest grains ($a<10$ nm) of nonideal structures moving with velocities of $v_{d}<500 \rm km~s^{-1}$. The ratio of rotational disruption to sputtering time is $\tau_{\rm disr}/\tau_{\rm sp}\sim 0.7(S_{\rm max}/10^{9}\rm erg~cm^{-3})(\bar{A}_{\rm sp}/12)(Y_{\rm sp}/0.1)(a/0.01\mu m)^{3}(300\rm km~s^{-1}/v_{d})^{2}$ where $a$ is the radius of spherical grains, and $Y_{\rm sp}$ is sputtering yield. We also consider the high-energy regime and find that the rate of METD is reduced and becomes less efficient than sputtering for $v_{d}>500\rm km~s^{-1}$ because impinging particles only transfer part of their momentum to the grain. We finally discuss implications of the METD mechanism for the destruction of hypersonic grains accelerated by radiation pressure as well as grains in fast shocks. Our results suggest that the destruction of small grains by METD in fast shocks of supernova remnants may be more efficient than previously predicted by nonthermal sputtering, depending on grain internal structures., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; accepted to ApJ, Appendix A added

It is widely believed that water and complex organic molecules (COMs) first form in the ice mantle of dust grains and are subsequently returned into the gas due to grain heating by intense radiation of protostars. Previous research on the desorption of molecules from the ice mantle assumed that grains are at rest which is contrary to the fact that grains are suprathermally rotating as a result of their interaction with an anisotropic radiation or gas flow. {To clearly understand how molecules are released in to the gas phase, the effect of grain suprathermal rotation on surface chemistry must be quantified}. In this paper, we study the effect of suprathermal rotation of dust grains spun-up by radiative torques on the desorption of molecules from icy grain mantles around protostars. We show that centrifugal potential energy due to grain rotation reduces the potential barrier of molecules and significantly enhances their desorption rate. We term this mechanism {\it rotational-thermal} or {\it ro-thermal} desorption. We apply the ro-thermal mechanism for studying the desorption of molecules from icy grains which are simultaneously heated to high temperatures and spun-up to suprathermal rotation by an intense radiation of protostars. We find that ro-thermal desorption is much more efficient than thermal desorption for molecules with high binding energy such as water and COMs. Our results have important implications for understanding the origin of COMs detected in star-forming regions and call for attention to the effect of suprathermal rotation of icy grains to use molecules as a tracer of physical conditions of star-forming regions., Comment: 9 figures, 16 pages; resubmitted to ApJ after the positive referee report

Polarized dust emission outside of disks reveal the magnetic field morphology of molecular clouds. Within disks, however, polarized dust emission can arise from very different mechanisms (e.g., self-scattering), and each of them are useful for constraining physical properties in the disk. For example, these mechanisms allow us to constrain the disk grain size distributions and grain/disk geometries, independent from current methods of measuring these parameters. To accurately model these features and disentangle the various polarization mechanisms, multiwavelength observations at very high resolution and sensitivity are required. With significant upgrades to current interferometric facilities, we can understand how grains evolve in disks during the planet formation process., Comment: Science white paper submitted to the Astro2020 Decadal Survey

Ice mantles on dust grains play a central role in astrochemistry. Water and complex organic molecules (COMs) are thought to first form on the ice mantles and subsequently are released into the gas phase due to star formation activity. However, the critical question is whether ice mantles can survive stellar radiation when grains are being heated from $T_{d}\sim 10\rm K$ to $\gtrsim 100$ K. In this paper, we first study the effect of suprathermal grain rotation driven by the intense radiation of young stellar objects (YSOs) on the ice mantles. We find that the entire ice mantles can be disrupted into small fragments by centrifugal stress before the water ice and COMs desorb via thermal sublimation. We then study the consequence of resulting ice fragments and find that tiny fragments of radius $a \lesssim 10$\AA~ exhibit transient release of COMs due to thermal spikes, whereas larger fragments can facilitate thermal sublimation at much higher rates than from the original icy grain or the same rate but with temperatures of $\sim 20-40$ K lower. We find that rotational desorption is efficient for hot cores/corinos from the inner to outer regions where the temperature drops to $T_{\rm gas}\sim 40\rm K$ and $n_{\rm H}\sim 10^{4}\rm cm^{-3}$. We discuss the implications of this mechanism for desorption of COMs and water ice in various environments, including outflow cavity walls, photodissociation regions, and protoplanetary disks. Finally, we show that very large aggregate grains can be disrupted into individual icy grains via rotational disruption mechanism, followed by rotational desorption of ice mantles., Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures; accepted to ApJ

Interstellar dust is an essential component of the interstellar medium (ISM) and plays critical roles in astrophysics. Achieving an accurate model of interstellar dust is therefore of great importance. Interstellar dust models are usually built based on observational constraints such as starlight extinction and polarization, but dynamical constraints such as grain rotation are not considered. In this paper, we show that a newly discovered effect by Hoang et al., so-called RAdiative Torque Disruption (RATD), can act as an important dynamical constraint for dust models. Using this dynamical constraint, we derive the maximum size of grains that survive in the ISM for different dust models, including contact binary, composite, silicate-core, and amorphous carbon mantle, and compact grain model for the different radiation fields. We find that the different dust models have different maximum size due to their different tensile strengths, and the largest maximum size corresponds to compact grains with the highest tensile strength. We show that the composite grain model cannot be ruled out if constituent particles are very small with radius $a_{p}\le$ 25 nm, but large composite grains would be destroyed if the particles are large with $a_{p}\ge 50$ nm. We suggest that grain internal structures can be constrained with observations using the dynamical RATD constraint for strong radiation fields such as supernova, nova, or star-forming regions. Finally, our obtained results suggest that micron-sized grains perhaps have compact/core-mantle structures or have composite structures but located in regions with slightly higher gas density and weaker radiation intensity than the average ISM., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Accepted to ApJ. Discussion on micron-sized grains added

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and nanoparticles are expected to play an important role in many astrophysical processes due to its dominant surface area, including gas heating, chemistry, star formation , and anomalous microwave emission. In dense magnetized molecular clouds where C-shocks are present, PAHs and nanoparticles are widely believed to originate from grain shattering due to grain-grain collisions. The remaining question is whether these nanoparticles can survive in the dense and hot shocked regions, and how to constrain their size and abundance with observations. In this paper, we present a new mechanism to destroy nanoparticles in C-shocks based on centrifugal stress within rapidly spinning nanoparticles spun-up by stochastic atomic bombardment, which is termed rotational disruption. We find that, due to supersonic neutral gas-charged grain drift in C-shocks, nanoparticles can be spun-up to suprathermal rotation by stochastic torques exerted by supersonic neutral flow. The resulting centrifugal stress within suprathermally rotating nanoparticles can exceed the maximum tensile strength of grain material ($S_{\max}$), resulting in rapid disruption of nanoparticles smaller than $a\sim 1$ nm for $S_{\max}\sim 10^{9}\erg\cm^{-3}$. The proposed disruption mechanism is shown to be more efficient than thermal sputtering in controlling the lower cutoff of grain size distribution in C-shocks. We model microwave emission from spinning nanoparticles in C-shocks subject to supersonic neutral drift and rotational disruption. We find that suprathermally rotating nanoparticles can emit strong microwave radiation, and both peak flux and peak frequency increase with increasing the shock velocity. We suggest spinning dust as a new method to constrain nanoparticles and trace shock velocities in dense, shocked regions., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures; Published in ApJ

Electric dipole emission from rapidly spinning polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is widely believed as an origin of anomalous microwave emission (AME), but recently it encounters a setback due to the non-correlation of AME with PAH abundance seen in a full-sky analysis. Microwave observations for specific regions with well-constrained PAH features would be crucial to test the spinning dust hypothesis. In this paper, we present physical modeling of microwave emission from spinning PAHs from protoplanetary disks (PPDs) around Herbig Ae/Be stars and T-Tauri stars where PAH features are well observed. Guided by the presence of 10 $\mu$m silicate features in some PPDs, we also model microwave emission from spinning nanosilicates. Thermal emission from big dust grains is computed using the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code. Our numerical results demonstrate that microwave emission from either spinning PAHs or spinning nanosilicates dominates over thermal dust at frequencies $\nu< 60$ GHz, even in the presence of significant grain growth. Finally, we attempt to fit mm-cm observational data with both thermal dust and spinning dust for several disks around Herbig Ae/Be stars that exhibit PAH features and find that spinning dust can successfully reproduce the observed excess microwave emission (EME). Future radio observations with ngVLA, SKA and ALMA Band 1 would be valuable for elucidating the origin of EME and potentially open a new window for probing nanoparticles in circumstellar disks., Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures; published version in ApJ with some typos fixed

The discovery of the first interstellar asteroid, 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua), has opened a new era for research on interstellar objects. In this paper, we study the rotational dynamics of interstellar asteroids (ISAs) of irregular shapes moving through the interstellar gas. We find that regular mechanical torques resulting from the bombardment of gas flow on the irregular body could be important for the dynamics and destruction of ISAs. Mechanical torques can spin up the ISA, resulting in the breakup of the original ISA into small binary asteroids when the rotation rate exceeds the critical frequency. We find that the breakup timescale is short for ISAs of highly irregular shapes and low tensile strength. We apply our results to the first observed ISA, `Oumuamua, and suggest that its extreme elongated shape may originate from a reassembly of the binary fragments due to gravity along its journey in the interstellar medium. The tumbling of `Oumuamua could have been induced by rotational disruption due to mechanical torques. Finally, we discuss the survival possibility of high-velocity asteroids presumably formed by tidal disruption of planetary systems by the black hole at the Galactic center., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted to Astrophysical Journal

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous in astrophysical environments, as revealed by their pronounced emission features at 3.3, 6.2, 7.7, 8.6, 11.3, and 12.7 $\mu$m commonly ascribed to the C--H and C--C vibrational modes. Although these features have long been predicted to be polarized, previous searches for PAH polarization led to null or, at best, tentative detections. Here we report the definite detection of polarized PAH emission at 11.3 $\mu$m in the nebula associated with the Herbig Be star MWC 1080. We measure a polarization degree of 1.9$\pm$0.2\%, which is unexpectedly high compared to models. This poses a challenge in the current understanding of the alignment of PAHs, which is required to polarize the PAH emission but thought to be substantially suppressed. PAH alignment with a magnetic field via a resonance paramagnetic relaxation process may account for such a high level of polarization., Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, accepted by ApJ

Polarization arising from aligned dust grains presents a unique opportunity to study magnetic fields in the diffuse interstellar medium and molecular clouds. Polarization from circumstellar regions, accretion disks and comet atmospheres can also be related to aligned dust.To reliably trace magnetic fields quantitative theory of grain alignment is required. Formulating the theory that would correspond to observations was one of the longstanding problems in astrophysics. Lately this problem has been successfully addressed, and in this review we summarize some of the most important theoretical advances in the theory of grain alignment by radiative torques (RATs) that act on realistic irregular dust grains. We discuss an analytical model of RATs and the ways to make RAT alignment more efficient, e.g. through paramagnetic relaxation when grains have inclusions with strong magnetic response. For very small grains for which RAT alignment is inefficient, we also discuss paramagnetic relaxation and a process termed resonance relaxation. We provide an extensive analysis of the observational tests of grain alignment theory., Comment: 37 pages, 23 figures, a chapter published in Polarimetry of Stars and Planetary Systems

Reflection nebulae--dense cores--illuminated by surrounding stars offer a unique opportunity to directly test our quantitative model of grain alignment based on radiative torques (RATs) and to explore new effects arising from additional torques. In this paper, we first perform detailed modeling of grain alignment by RATs for the IC 63 reflection nebula illuminated both by a nearby $\gamma$ Cas star and the diffuse interstellar radiation field. We calculate linear polarization $p_{\lambda}$ of background stars by radiatively aligned grains and explore the variation of fractional polarization ($p_{\lambda}/A_V$) with visual extinction $A_{V}$ across the cloud. Our results show that the variation of $p_{V}/A_{V}$ versus $A_{V}$ from the dayside of IC 63 to its center can be represented by a power-law ($p_{V}/A_{V}\propto A_{V}^{\eta}$) with different slopes depending on $A_{V}$. We find a shallow slope $\eta \sim- 0.1$ for $A_{V}< 3$ and a very steep slope $\eta\sim -2$ for $A_{V}> 4$. We then consider the effects of additional torques due to H$_{2}$ formation and model grain alignment by joint action of RATs and H$_2$ torques. We find that $p_{V}/A_{V}$ tends to increase with an increasing magnitude of H$_{2}$ torques. In particular, the theoretical predictions obtained for $p_{V}/A_{V}$ and peak wavelength $\lambda_{\max}$ in this case show an improved agreement with the observational data. Our results reinforce the predictive power of the RAT alignment mechanism in a broad range of environmental conditions and show the effect of pinwheel torques in environments with efficient H$_2$ formation. Physical parameters involved in H$_2$ formation may be constrained using detailed modeling of grain alignment combined with observational data. In addition, we discuss implications of our modeling for interpreting latest observational data by {\it Planck} and other ground-based instruments., Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, accepted with minor corrections in MNRAS

Grain alignment by radiative torques (RATs) has been extensively studied for various environment conditions, including interstellar medium, dense molecular clouds, and accretion disks, thanks to significant progress in observational, theoretical and numerical studies. In this paper, we explore the alignment by RATs and provide quantitative predictions of dust polarization for a set of astrophysical environments that can be tested observationally. We first consider the alignment of grains in the local interstellar medium and compare predictions for linear polarization by aligned grains with recent observational data for nearby stars. We then revisit the problem of grain alignment in accretions disks by taking into account the dependence of RAT alignment efficiency on the anisotropic direction of radiation fields relative to magnetic fields. Moreover, we study the grain alignment in interplanetary medium, including diffuse Zodiacal cloud and cometary comae, and calculate the degree of circular polarization (CP) of scattered light arising from single scattering by aligned grains. We also discuss a new type of grain alignment, namely the alignment with respect to the ambient electric field instead of the alignment with the magnetic field. We show that this type of alignment can allow us to reproduce the systematic features of CP observed across a cometary coma. Our findings suggest that polarized Zodiacal dust emission may be an important polarized foreground component, which should be treated carefully in cosmic microwave background experiments., Comment: 26 pages, 15 figures, published in MNRAS

We consider the acceleration of very small dust grains including Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) arising from the electrostatic interactions of dust grains that have charge fluctuations in time due to charging events. We simulate the charge fluctuations of very small grains due to their sticking collisions with electrons and ions in plasma, and the emission of photoelectrons by UV photons using Monte Carlo method. We identify the acceleration induced by the charge fluctuations as the dominant acceleration mechanism of very small grains in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM). We show that this acceleration mechanism is efficient for environments with low degree of ionization (i.e., large Debye length), where the charge fluctuations are slow but have a large amplitude. We also discuss the implications of the present mechanism for grain coagulation and shattering in the diffuse ISM, molecular clouds, and protoplanetary disks., Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, some typos fixed, discussion revised. Submitted to Astrophysical Journal

We study the acceleration of charged grains by magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM). We begin with revisiting gyroresonance acceleration by taking into account the fluctuations of grain guiding center along a uniform magnetic field (i.e. nonlinear theory--NLT). We calculate grain velocities due to gyroresonance by fast MHD modes using the NLT for different phases of the ISM, and compare with results obtained using quasi-linear theory (QLT). We find for the parameters applicable to the typical ISM phases that the fluctuations of grain guiding center reduce grain velocities by less than 15 percent, but they can be important for more special circumstances. We confirm that large grains can be accelerated to super-Alfvenic velocities through gyroresonance. For such super-Alfvenic grains, we investigate the effect of further acceleration via transit time damping (TTD) by fast modes. We find that due to the broadening of resonance condition in the NLT, the TTD acceleration is not only important for the cosines of grain pitch angle relative to the magnetic field mu>V_{A}/v, but also for mu