Correlation among extinction efficiency and other parameters in an aggregate dust model

Abstract

We study the extinction properties of highly porous Ballistic Cluster-Cluster Aggregate dust aggregates in a wide range of complex refractive indices (, ) and wavelengths ( m). An attempt has been made for the first time to investigate the correlation among extinction efficiency (), composition of dust aggregates (), wavelength of radiation (λ) and size parameter of the monomers (x). If k is fixed at any value between 0.001 and 1.0, increases with increase of n from 1.4 to 2.0. and n are correlated via linear regression when the cluster size is small, whereas the correlation is quadratic at moderate and higher sizes of the cluster. This feature is observed at all wavelengths (ultraviolet to optical to infrared). We also find that the variation of with n is very small when λ is high. When n is fixed at any value between 1.4 and 2.0, it is observed that and k are correlated via a polynomial regression equation (of degree 1, 2, 3 or 4), where the degree of the equation depends on the cluster size, n and λ. The correlation is linear for small size and quadratic/cubic/quartic for moderate and higher sizes. We have also found that and x are correlated via a polynomial regression (of degree 3, 4 or 5) for all values of n. The degree of regression is found to be n and k-dependent. The set of relations obtained from our work can be used to model interstellar extinction for dust aggregates in a wide range of wavelengths and complex refractive indices.