CosTuuM: Polarized Thermal Dust Emission by Magnetically Oriented Spheroidal Grains

• Published in: The Astronomical journal Vol. 160; no. 1; pp. 55 - 73
• Main Authors: Vandenbroucke, Bert, Baes, Maarten, Camps, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Madison The American Astronomical Society 01.07.2020; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: ABSORPTION; Absorption coefficient; Absorptivity; Algorithms; Alignment; Astronomy; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; Benchmarks; COMPUTER CODES; COSMIC DUST; DISTRIBUTION; Dust; Dust continuum emission; Dust emission; EMISSION; GRAIN SIZE; Infrared absorption; Interstellar dust; Libraries; Linear polarization; MAGNETIC FIELDS; MATHEMATICAL METHODS AND COMPUTING; OPTICAL PROPERTIES; Polarimetry; POLARIZATION; Radiative transfer; Radiative transfer simulations; Source code; WAVELENGTHS
• ISSN: 0004-6256; 1538-3881; 1538-3881
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/ab9cbd

We present the new open-source C++-based Python library CosTuuM that can be used to generate infrared absorption and emission coefficients for arbitrary mixtures of spheroidal dust grains that are (partially) aligned with a magnetic field. We outline the algorithms underlying the software, demonstrate the accuracy of our results using benchmarks from literature, and use our tool to investigate some commonly used approximative recipes. We find that the linear polarization fraction for a partially aligned dust grain mixture can be accurately represented by an appropriate linear combination of perfectly aligned grains and grains that are randomly oriented, but that the commonly used picket fence alignment breaks down for short wavelengths. We also find that for a fixed dust grain size, the absorption coefficients and linear polarization fraction for a realistic mixture of grains with various shapes cannot both be accurately represented by a single representative grain with a fixed shape, but that instead an average over an appropriate shape distribution should be used. Insufficient knowledge of an appropriate shape distribution is the main obstacle in obtaining accurate optical properties. CosTuuM is available as a standalone Python library and can be used to generate optical properties to be used in radiative transfer applications.