Davis-Greenstein alignment of non-spherical grains

Abstract

Paramagnetic alignment of non-spherical dust grains rotating at thermal velocities is studied. The analytical solution is found for the alignment measure of oblate grains. Perturbative approach is used for solving the problem. It is shown that even the first approximation of the suggested iteration procedure provides the accuracy well within one percent of the expected measure of alignment. The results obtained are applicable both to paramagnetic and to superferromagnetic grains.