Paradigmatic examples for testing models of optical light polarization by spheroidal dust

Abstract

We present a general framework on how the polarization of radiation due to scattering, dichroic extinction, and birefringence of aligned spheroidal dust grains can be implemented and tested in 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer (MCRT) codes. We derive a methodology for solving the radiative transfer equation governing the changes of the Stokes parameters in dust-enshrouded objects. We utilize the Müller matrix and the extinction, scattering, linear, and circular polarization cross sections of spheroidal grains as well as electrons. An established MCRT code is used, and its capabilities are extended to include the Stokes formalism. We compute changes in the polarization state of the light by scattering, dichroic extinction, and birefringence on spheroidal grains. The dependency of the optical depth and the albedo on the polarization is treated. The implementation of scattering by spheroidal grains both for random walk steps as well as for directed scattering (peel-off) are described. The observable polarization of radiation of the objects is determined through an angle binning method for photon packages that leaves the model space as well as through an inverse ray-tracing routine for the generation of images. We present paradigmatic examples for which we derive analytical solutions of the optical light polarization by spheroidal dust particles. These tests are suited for benchmark verification of MCPOL and other such codes and allow the numerical precision reached by these codes to be quantified. We demonstrate that MCPOL is in excellent agreement (within ~0.1%) of the Stokes parameters when compared to the analytical solutions.