The Sunshine State's dark cloud

Sunshine and the cardiovascular benefits – a dose of sunshine!

Growth in the Dark Cloud L 1251

We have performed optical imaging observations of the dark cloud L1251 at multiple wavelengths, B, V , R, and I, using the 105 cm Schmidt telescope at the Kiso Observatory, Japan. The cloud has a cometary shape with a dense “head” showing star formation activity and a relatively diffuse “tail” without any signs of star formation. We derived extinction maps of AB and AV with a star count method,...

Grain Alignment in the Taurus Dark Cloud

Variations in polarization e ciency (p=A) of interstellar grains as a function of environment place vital constraints on models for the mechanism of their alignment. We use polarimetry of background eld stars to investigate alignment in the Taurus dark cloud as a function of optical depth for extinctions of AK < 2:5 (AV < 25). Results show a strong systematic trend in polarization e ciency with...

Probing the Dark Sector with Dark Matter Bound States.

A model of the dark sector where O(few  GeV) mass dark matter particles χ couple to a lighter dark force mediator V, m_{V}≪m_{χ}, is motivated by the recently discovered mismatch between simulated and observed shapes of galactic halos. Such models, in general, provide a challenge for direct detection efforts and collider searches. We show that for a large range of coupling constants and masses,...

Collective entangled dark states