# Thermal Flipping and Thermal Trapping – New Elements in Dust Grain Dynamics

## 1 Introduction

One of the essential features of grain dynamics in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) is suprathermal rotation (Purcell 1975, 1979) resulting from systematic torques that act on grains. Purcell (1979, henceforth P79) identified three separate systematic torque mechanisms: inelastic scattering of impinging atoms when gas and grain temperatures differ, photoelectric emission, and H<sub>2</sub> formation on grain surfaces<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1 Radiative torques suggested in Draine & Weingartner (1996) as a means of suprathermal rotation are effective only for grains larger than $`5\times 10^6`$ cm. . The latter was shown to dominate the other two for typical conditions in the diffuse ISM (P79). The existence of systematic H<sub>2</sub> torques is expected due to the random distribution over the grain surface of catalytic sites of H<sub>2</sub> formation, since each active site acts as a minute thruster emitting newly-formed H<sub>2</sub> molecules.

The arguments of P79 in favor of suprathermal rotation were so clear and compelling that other researchers were immediately convinced that interstellar grains in diffuse clouds should rotate suprathermally. Purcell’s discovery was of immense importance for grain alignment. Suprathermally rotating grains remain subject to gradual alignment by paramagnetic dissipation (Davis & Greenstein 1951), but due to their large angular momentum are essentially immune to disalignment by collisions with gas atoms.

Spitzer & McGlynn (1979, henceforth SM79) showed that suprathermally rotating grains should be susceptible to disalignment only during short intervals of slow rotation that they called “crossovers”<sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2Crossovers are due to various grain surface processes that change the direction (in body-coordinates) of the systematic torques. . Therefore for sufficiently infrequent crossovers suprathermally rotating grains will be well aligned with the degree of alignment determined by the time between crossovers, the degree of correlation of the direction of grain angular momentum before and after a crossover (SM79), and environmental conditions (e.g., magnetic field strength $`B`$).

The original calculations of SM79 obtained only marginal correlation of angular momentum before and after a crossover, but their analysis disregarded thermal fluctuations within the grain material. Lazarian & Draine (1997, henceforth LD97), showed that thermal fluctuations are very important, and result in a high degree of correlation for grains larger than a critical radius $`a_c`$, the radius for which the time for internal dissipation of rotational kinetic energy is equal to the duration of a crossover. Assuming that the grain relaxation is dominated by Barnett relaxation (P79), LD97 found $`a_c1.5\times 10^5\mathrm{cm}`$, in accord with observations that indicated that the dividing line between grains that contribute and those that do not contribute to starlight polarization has approximately this value (Kim & Martin 1995).

Here we report the discovery that a new effect of thermal fluctuations – which we term “thermal flipping” – should lead to alignment of even the small grains with $`a\stackrel{<}{}a_c`$, if they rotate suprathermally. However, small grains are observed to not be aligned. We argue that this is due to a second effect – “thermal trapping” – which causes small grains to rotate thermally a significant fraction of the time, despite systematic torques which would otherwise drive suprathermal rotation.

In §2 we review the role of Barnett fluctuations in the crossover process. In §3 we discuss how crossovers influence grain alignment, and in §4 we argue that “thermal trapping” can account for the observed lack of alignment of small grains.

## 2 Crossovers and Thermal Flipping

SM79 revealed two basic facts about grain crossovers. First, they showed that in the absence of external random torques the direction of grain angular momentum $`𝐉`$ remains constant during a crossover, while the grain itself flips over. Second, they demonstrated that in the presence of random torques (arising, for instance, from gaseous bombardment) the degree of correlation of the direction of $`𝐉`$ before and after a crossover is determined by $`J_{\mathrm{min}}`$, the minimum value of $`|J|`$ during the crossover. As a grain tends to rotate about its axis of maximal moment of inertia (henceforth referred to as “the axis of major inertia”), SM79 showed that the systematic torque components perpendicular to this axis are averaged out and the crossover is due to changes in $`J_{}`$ due to the component of the torque parallel to the axis.<sup>3</sup><sup>3</sup>3 Indices $``$ and $``$ denote components parallel and perpendicular to the axis of major inertia.  Midway through the flipover $`J_{}=0`$ and $`J_{\mathrm{min}}=J_{}`$.

The time scale for Barnett relaxation is much shorter than the time between crossovers. For finite grain temperatures thermal fluctuations deviate the axis of major inertia from $`𝐉`$ (Lazarian 1994). These deviations are given by the Boltzmann distribution (Lazarian & Roberge 1997) which, for an oblate grain (e.g., an $`a\times b\times b`$ “brick” with $`b>a`$) is

$$f(\beta )d\beta =\mathrm{const}\mathrm{sin}\beta \mathrm{exp}\left[E_k(\beta )/kT_d\right]d\beta ;$$
(1)   
$$E_k(\beta )=\frac{J^2}{2I_z}\left[1+\mathrm{sin}^2\beta \left(\frac{I_z}{I_{}}1\right)\right]$$
(2)   
is the kinetic energy, and $`\beta `$ the angle between the axis of major inertia and $`𝐉`$. We define

$$J_d\left(\frac{I_zI_{}kT_d}{I_zI_{}}\right)^{1/2}(2I_zkT_d)^{1/2}.$$
(3)   
where the approximation assumes $`I_z1.5I_{}`$, as for an $`a\times b\times b`$ brick with $`b/a=\sqrt{3}`$. The Barnett relaxation time is (P79)

$$t_\mathrm{B}=8\times 10^7a_5^7(J_d/J)^2\mathrm{sec},$$
(4)   
where $`a_5a/10^5\mathrm{cm}`$. For $`J>J_d`$, the most probable value of $`\beta `$ for distribution (1) has $`J_{}=J\mathrm{sin}\beta =J_d`$, while for $`J<J_d`$ the most probable value of $`\beta `$ is $`\pi /2`$. It follows from (1) that during suprathermal rotation ($`J^2J_d^2`$) the fluctuating component of angular momentum perpendicular to the axis of major inertia $`J_{}^2J_d^2`$.

SM79 defined the crossover time as $`t_c=2J_{}/|\dot{J_{}}|`$ where $`\dot{J}_{}`$ is the time derivative of $`J_{}`$. If $`t_ct_B`$, the Barnett fluctuations can be disregarded during a crossover, and $`J_{}=constJ_d`$. The corresponding trajectory is represented by a dashed line in Fig. 1. Initially the grain rotates suprathermally with $`\beta 0`$; $`\beta `$ crosses through $`\pi /2`$ during the crossover and $`\beta \pi `$ as the grain spins up again to suprathermal velocities.

The condition $`t_c=t_\mathrm{B}`$ was used in LD97 to obtain a critical grain size $`a_\mathrm{c}1.5\times 10^5`$ cm. It was shown that $`t_c<t_B`$ for $`a>a_\mathrm{c}`$, and paramagnetic dissipation can achieve an alignment of $`80\%`$ for typical values of the interstellar magnetic field. If paramagnetic aligment were suppressed for $`a<a_\mathrm{c}`$ this would explain the observed dichotomy in grain alignment: large grains are aligned, while small are not.

What spoils this nice picture is that sufficiently strong thermal fluctuations can enable crossovers: fluctuations in $`\beta `$ span $`[0,\pi ]`$ and therefore have a finite probability to flip a grain over for an arbitrary value of $`J`$. The probability of such fluctuations is small for $`J^2J_d^2`$, but becomes substantial when $`|J|`$ approaches $`J_d`$. Indeed, it is obvious from (1) that in the latter case the probability of $`\beta \pi /2`$ becomes appreciable. LD98 show that the probability per unit time of a flipover due to fluctuations is

$$t_{\mathrm{tf}}^1t_\mathrm{B}^1\mathrm{exp}\left\{(1/2)\left[(J/J_d)^21\right]\right\}.$$
(5)   
Whether the grain trajectory is approximately a straight line in Fig. 1, (a “regular crossover”), or two lines connected by an arc (a “thermal flip”) depends on the efficacy of the Barnett relaxation. Roughly speaking, thermal flipping happens when $`t_{\mathrm{tf}}`$ $`\stackrel{<}{}`$$`J/\dot{J}`$. If $`JJ_d`$ the ratio of the flipping and crossover time $`t_{\mathrm{tf}}/t_ct_\mathrm{B}/t_c`$. The latter ratio was found in LD97 to be equal to $`(a/a_c)^{13/2}`$. Therefore flipping was correctly disregarded in LD97 where only grains larger than $`a_c`$ were considered, but should be accounted for if $`a<a_c`$.

The last issue is the problem of multiple flips: a grain with $`\beta >\pi /2`$ can flip back. Thermal flips do not change $`𝐉`$. Therefore after a flip (from quadrant $`\beta <\pi /2`$ to quadrant $`\beta >\pi /2`$ in Fig. 1) the grain has the same $`𝐉`$ as before the flip. For $`J>J_d`$, the thermal distribution (1) has two most probable values of $`\beta `$: $`\beta _{}=\mathrm{sin}^1(J_d/J)`$, and $`\beta _+=\pi \beta _+`$. For both $`\beta _{}`$ and $`\beta _+`$ we have $`J_{}=J_d`$. If we idealize the grain dynamics as consisting of systematic torques changing $`J_{}`$ with $`J_{}=const`$, plus the possibility of instantaneous “flips” (at constant $`𝐉`$) between $`\beta _{}`$ and $`\beta _+`$, then we can estimate the probability of one or more “flips” taking place during a crossover. Let $`\varphi (\beta )d\beta =t_{\mathrm{tf}}^1dt`$ be the probability of a flip from $`\beta `$ to $`\pi \beta `$ while traversing $`d\beta `$. The probability of zero flips between $`0`$ and $`\beta `$ is $`f_{00}(\beta )=\mathrm{exp}[_0^\beta \varphi (x^{})𝑑x^{}]`$. The probability of a “regular crossover” (zero flips) is $`p_{00}=f_{00}(\pi )=e^{2\alpha }`$, where

$$\alpha _0^{\pi /2}\varphi (x)𝑑x\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{2}}\frac{t_c}{t_B}=\sqrt{\frac{\pi }{2}}\left(\frac{a_c}{a}\right)^{13/2}.$$
(6)   
Similarly, $`df_{10}=f_{00}^2\varphi d\beta `$ is the probability of one forward flip in the interval $`d\beta `$, with no prior or subsequent flips, and the probability of exactly one forward and zero backward flips during the crossover is $`p_{10}=f_{10}(\pi /2)=(1e^{2\alpha })/2`$. Therefore the probability of one or more backward flips is $`1p_{00}p_{10}=(1e^{2\alpha })/21/2`$ for $`aa_{\mathrm{cr}}`$.

## 3 Efficacy of Paramagnetic Alignment

SM79 showed that disalignment of suprathermally rotating grains occurs only during crossovers whereas thermally rotating grains undergo randomization all the time. Consider a grain subject to random (nonsystematic) torques which provide an excitation rate $`\mathrm{\Delta }J^2/\mathrm{\Delta }t`$, and damping torque $`𝐉/t_d`$, where $`t_d`$ is the rotational damping time. Thermally rotating grains have $`J^2=(1/2)t_d(\mathrm{\Delta }J^2/\mathrm{\Delta }t)J_{th}^2`$. This definition of thermally rotating grains encompasses grains whose rotation is excited by random H<sub>2</sub> formation, cosmic ray bombardment etc. – so long as the associated torques have no systematic component. For suprathermally rotating grains $`J^2J_{th}^2`$.

In what follows we roughly estimate the efficacy of grain alignment for $`t_ct_\mathrm{B}`$, i.e., $`a<a_c`$. Following P79 we assume that H<sub>2</sub> torques are the dominant spin-up mechanism.

A crossover requires $`NJ_{\mathrm{min}}/\mathrm{\Delta }J_z`$ impulse events, where the mean impulse per recombination event (see SM79) $`\mathrm{\Delta }J_z\left(2m_\mathrm{H}a^2E/3\nu \right)^{1/2}`$ where $`\nu `$ is the number of active recombination sites, $`E`$ is the kinetic energy per newly-formed H<sub>2</sub>, and $`J_{\mathrm{min}}`$ is the minimum $`J`$ reached during the crossover. If $`N`$ is multiplied by the sum of mean squared random angular momentum impulses $`(\mathrm{\Delta }J_z^2+\mathrm{\Delta }J_{}^2)`$ it gives the mean squared change of $`J`$ during a crossover. Therefore the mean squared change of angle during a flipping-assisted crossover is

$$F\frac{N(\mathrm{\Delta }J_z^2+\mathrm{\Delta }J_{}^2)}{J_{\mathrm{min}}^2}\frac{(\mathrm{\Delta }J_z^2+\mathrm{\Delta }J_{}^2)}{J_{\mathrm{min}}\mathrm{\Delta }J_z}$$
(7)   
which differs only by a factor of order unity from the expression for disorientation parameter $`F`$ in SM79, provided that $`J_{\mathrm{min}}`$ is used instead of $`J_{}`$. The latter is the major difference between the regular crossovers that were described by SM79 and LD97 and our present study. SM79 and LD97 dealt with the case for which flipping is negligible and the disorientation was mostly happening when $`J_{}0`$ due to the action of regular torques, in which case $`J_{\mathrm{min}}J_d`$. As flipping becomes important, $`J_{\mathrm{min}}>J_d`$ is obtained from the condition $`t_{\mathrm{tf}}(J_{\mathrm{min}})J_{\mathrm{min}}/\dot{J}`$.

Grain alignment is measured by $`\sigma (3/2)(\mathrm{cos}^2\theta 1/3)`$ where $`\theta `$ is the angle between the magnetic field direction and $`𝐉`$. Generalizing LD97,

$$\sigma A\left[1+\frac{3}{\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}}\left(\frac{\mathrm{arctan}\sqrt{e^{\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}}1}}{\sqrt{e^{\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}}1}}1\right)\right]+(1A)\sigma _{\mathrm{th}},$$
(8)   
$$\delta _{\mathrm{eff}}=\frac{2C\overline{t}_b/t_r}{\left[1\mathrm{exp}(F)\right]}\frac{2.6Ct_d/t_r}{\left[1\mathrm{exp}(F)\right]}\left(1+\frac{t_L}{t_d}\right)$$
(9)   
where $`A=C=1`$ in LD97 theory, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{th}}`$ is the alignment parameter for thermally rotating grains (Roberge & Lazarian 1998), $`t_r`$ is the paramagnetic damping time (Davis & Greenstein 1951), $`\overline{t}_b1.3(t_d+t_L)`$ is the mean time back to the last crossover (P79), and $`t_L`$ is the resurfacing time. For typical ISM conditions ($`n_\mathrm{H}=20`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>, $`B=5\mu `$G) $`t_d/t_r0.05/a_5`$.

Expressions (8) and (9) (with $`A=C=1`$) were obtained in LD97 assuming that grains spend nearly all their time rotating suprathermally, except for brief crossover events with a characteristic disorientation parameter $`F`$. We now argue that a significant fraction of the small grains do not rotate suprathermally, and an appreciable fraction of crossovers have $`F\stackrel{>}{}1`$.

## 4 Thermal trapping of small grains

P79 theory of suprathermal rotation did not take into account the “thermal flipping” process discussed here. We now argue that thermal flipping will suppress the suprathermal rotation of very small grains.

With the Barnett relaxation time $`t_\mathrm{B}`$ from (4), the ratio $`t_\mathrm{B}/t_d1\times 10^4(15/T_d)(J_d/J)^2a_5^6`$, where the drag time $`t_d`$ is evaluated for a diffuse cloud with $`n_\mathrm{H}=30\mathrm{cm}^3`$ and $`T=100\mathrm{K}`$. Thus the timescale for a thermal flip is

$$t_{\mathrm{tf}}/t_d10^4a_5^6(J_d/J)^2\mathrm{exp}\left\{(1/2)\left[(J/J_d)^21\right]\right\}$$
(10)   
showing that thermal flipping is strongly favored for small grains. The critical question now is: Can the systematic torques drive small grains to large enough $`J`$ to suppress the thermal flipping, or is the thermal flipping sufficiently rapid to suppress the superthermality?

Consider a grain with a systematic torque $`(G1)^{1/2}J_{\mathrm{th}}/t_d`$ along the major axis (fixed in grain coordinates). The condition $`J_{\mathrm{min}}=\dot{J}t_{\mathrm{tf}}(J_{\mathrm{min}})`$ becomes

$$t_{\mathrm{tf}}/t_d=(J_{\mathrm{min}}/J_{\mathrm{th}})/(G1)^{1/2}.$$
(11)   
Thermal flipping causes the systematic torque to randomly change sign in inertial coordinates, so that

$$J^2=J_{\mathrm{th}}^2+(G1)J_{\mathrm{th}}^2t_{\mathrm{tf}}/(t_{\mathrm{tf}}+t_d),$$
(12)   
giving a condition for $`t_{\mathrm{tf}}`$ in terms of $`J^2`$:

$$t_{\mathrm{tf}}/t_d=\left[(J/J_{\mathrm{th}})^21\right]/\left[G(J/J_{\mathrm{th}})^2\right].$$
(13)   
For given $`a`$, $`G`$, and $`(J_{th}/J_d)^2`$, (10) and (13) have either one or three solutions for $`J^2`$. If $`J^2^{1/2}`$ has multiple solutions $`J_1<J_2<J_3`$, the intermediate solution $`J_2`$ is unstable: if $`J_1<J<J_2`$, then $`t_{\mathrm{tf}}`$ from (10) is smaller than the value required by (13), so $`JJ_1`$; if $`J_2<J<J_3`$, then $`JJ_3`$. In the former case thermal flipping leads to suppression of suprathermal rotation: if the grain enters the region $`J<J_2`$, then it is trapped with $`JJ_1`$ until a fluctuation brings it to $`J>J_2`$. The timescale for such a fluctuation is $`t_{\mathrm{trap}}t_d\mathrm{exp}[(J_2/J_{\mathrm{th}})^2]`$. We refer to this phenomenon as “thermal trapping”.

As an example, consider $`(J_{\mathrm{th}}/J_\mathrm{d})^2=5`$, $`G=10^3`$ and $`a_5=0.5`$. Thermal flipping takes place during a crossover at $`J_{\mathrm{min}}^25.9J_{\mathrm{th}}^2`$. If $`J^2`$ drops below $`J_2^2=4.5J_{\mathrm{th}}^2`$, the grain will be thermally trapped. For this case thermal flipping will tend to maintain the grain at $`J^2J_1^21.02(J_{\mathrm{th}})^2`$, unless thermal fluctuations succeed in getting the grain to $`J>J_2`$, in which case thermal flipping is unable to prevent the grain spinning up to a superthermality $`(J/J_{\mathrm{th}})^2G=10^3`$. For this example the thermal trapping time $`t_{\mathrm{trap}}50t_d`$. During this time paramagnetic alignment will be minimal. Grains that escape the thermal trap become suprathermal and align on the timescale for paramagnetic alignment.

Let $`\eta `$ be the probability per crossover of becoming “thermally trapped”. The fraction of grains which are not thermally trapped at any time is $`x=\overline{t}_b/(\overline{t}_b+\eta t_{\mathrm{trap}})`$. We can estimate the grain alignment by using (8) and (9) with $`A=x`$ and $`C=[1\mathrm{exp}(F)]\{\eta +(1\eta )[1\mathrm{exp}(F)]\}^1`$.

During a crossover, the first thermal flip takes place at $`JJ_{\mathrm{min}}`$, only a bit larger than $`J_2`$, the thermal trapping boundary. We have seen above that for $`a<a_c`$, $`50\%`$ of crossovers involve one or more “backward” flips. We do not know what fraction of the crossovers end up “thermally trapped”, but we speculate that it could be appreciable, say $`\eta 0.1`$.

The time between crossovers is of the order of the damping time $`t_d`$ (see P79). Returning to our example of a grain with $`a_5=0.5`$, for which we estimated $`t_{\mathrm{trap}}50t_d`$, we see that the fraction of grains which are not trapped $`x=1/(1+50\eta t_d/\overline{t}_b)`$ could be small if $`\eta \stackrel{>}{}0.1`$. More detailed studies of the dynamics (Lazarian & Draine 1999) will be required to estimate $`\eta `$, and to provide more reliable estimates of $`t_{\mathrm{trap}}`$, before we can quantitatively estimate the degree to which thermal trapping will suppress the alignment of small grains.

Inspection of Fig. 2 shows that thermal trapping solutions are only found if $`G`$ is not too large (e.g. for $`G=10^5`$ we have no thermal trapping solution in Fig. 2 for $`a_5=0.5`$).

Such degrees of suprathermality would follow from variations of accomodation coefficient and photoelectric yield, but higher values were obtained in the literature for the case of H<sub>2</sub> torques (P79, LD97). For example, LD97 estimate $`G=2\times 10^7a_5(\gamma /0.2)^2(10^{11}\mathrm{cm}^2/\alpha )`$, where $`\alpha `$ is the surface density of active recombination sites. The values of $`G\stackrel{<}{}10^4`$ required for thermal trapping to be possible for $`a_50.5`$ grains would appear to require $`(\gamma /0.2)^2/\alpha \stackrel{<}{}10^{14}\mathrm{cm}^2`$. If essentially every surface site is an active chemisorption site, we could have $`\alpha 10^{15}\mathrm{cm}^2`$; alternatively, it is conceivable that $`\gamma 1`$ for very small grains. The latter idea was advocated by Lazarian (1995), who found that oxygen poisoning of catalytic sites is exponentially enhanced for grains with $`a<10^5`$ cm. Recent experimental work (Pironello et al. 1997a,b) suggests that $`\gamma `$ may be much smaller than is usually assumed. Moreover, recent research (Lazarian & Efroimsky 1998, Lazarian & Draine 1999) shows that faster processes of internal relaxation are possible. These processes should enable thermal trapping for larger values of $`G`$.

## 5 Conclusions

We have found that “thermal flipping” is a critical element of the dynamics of small ($`a\stackrel{<}{}10^5`$ cm) grains. If small grains rotate suprathermally, then thermal flipping would promote their alignment by suppressing disalignment during “flipping-assisted” crossovers. Since small grains are observed to not be aligned, it follows that most must not rotate suprathermally.

One way for small grains to not rotate suprathermally would be for the systematic torques from $`\mathrm{H}_2`$ formation and photoelectric emission to be much smaller than current estimates. However, we also find that thermal flipping can result in “thermal trapping”, whereby rapid thermal flipping can prevent systematic torques from driving small grains to suprathermal rotation rates. As a result, at any given time an appreciable fraction of small grains are thermally trapped and being disaligned by random processes.

The thermal trapping effect is of increasing importance for smaller grains, and may explain the observed minimal alignment of $`a\stackrel{<}{}5\times 10^6\mathrm{cm}`$ dust grains (Kim & Martin 1995).

This work was supported in part by NASA grants NAG5-2858 and NAG5-7030, and NSF grant AST-9619429.