Influence of porosity on the Umov effect in silicate and organic refractory aggregates

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of porosity on the Umov effect, a phenomenon observed in the scattering of light from celestial objects. The Umov effect describes an inverse relationship between the degree of linear polarization and the object’s reflectance (geometric albedo). To study the dependence of porosity on the Umov effect, a wide range of porosity (i.e., from 0.64 to 0.99) is considered. Four types of aggregates, ballistic cluster-cluster aggregate (BCCA), ballistic particle cluster aggregate (BPCA) or ballistic agglomeration (BA), ballistic agglomeration with one migration (BAM1), and ballistic agglomeration with two migrations (BAM2) each having porosity 0.99, 0.87, 0.74, and 0.64 are considered in this study. The multi-sphere T-matrix code is utilized to calculate the linear polarization and geometric albedo (A) considering silicate and organic refractory compositions for monodisperse aggregates. The results are reported for six different wavelengths, ranging from near-ultraviolet to the visible spectrum. When the polarization maximum (Pmax) is plotted against the geometric albedo (A) on a logarithmic scale, an inverse relation is observed. This relation exhibits non-linear changes, fitted by a second-degree polynomial equation, as the porosity changes from 0.64 to 0.99. This finding constitutes one of the interesting results of our study. In addition, the study explores the effect of porosity (P) on the ratio between log(Pmax) and log(A), showing a non-linear relationship. A comparison is drawn between the results obtained from organic refractory compositions and amorphous silicate compositions, emphasizing the importance of porosity and wavelength in regulating the Umov effect. In addition, the research investigates how mixing affects the results at different wavelengths, assuming the aggregates are blends of organic refractory and amorphous silicate compositions. The computations have also been performed for polydisperse aggregates (considering BCCA, BA, BAM1, and BAM2 structures) at a wavelength of 0.45 μm for silicate compositions, which also showed a non-linear dependence as observed in the case of monodisperse aggregates.