Authors: Richard Shurtleff
Detecting polarized starlight projects an intriguing pattern of polarization directions on the Galaxy. Polarized starlight is a well known tracer of Galactic Magnetic fields and is a tool for studying the dust that contaminates the view of more distant objects. The alignment of the polarization directions of a sample of stars on the Galactic Disk is investigated with a recently devised test. The Hub Test offers numerical metrics based on the geometry of spherical geodesics, i.e. great circles, to judge alignment. The test always compares the directions of two vectors at a single point, a process that avoids comparing the directions of two vectors at distinct points; no parallel transport needed. The sample of 893 stars, located from longitude 90° to 160° and latitude -15° to +15°, is among the best aligned regions on the Disk. The alignment function provides a full-sphere depiction of the collective alignment. The metrics include the likelihood that random polarization directions would produce equal or better alignments. For the 893 star sample considered here, the alignment occurs at the 54sigma level. The alignment function has minima along an equator, which, for this sample, coincides with the Galactic Disk, and the function has maxima at poles, here coincident with the Galactic Poles. The source of the polarization data is the Heiles 2000 agglomeration catalog. This article is a Mathematica notebook which can be accessed and run via a link in the References.
Comments: 37 pages, 8 figures
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[v1] 2021-03-29 14:27:15
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