Grain
alignment in starless cores (Jones et al. 2015, AJ, 149, 31). The line
labeled Pmax is the maximum polarization in transmission for perfect
grain alignment with the magnetic field
in the plane of the sky. The
line labeled JKD includes the effects of turbulence, and fits the main
trend in the ISM. The small plus marks and solid squares are
measurements of stars
shining through starless cores from
behind. The show a further decline in polairzation efficiency (P/Tau)
at higher Av than can be explained by turbulence alone. The trend is
shown as
a dashed line from a power-law fit by Whitett et al. (2008,
ApJ, 674, 304). The open circles are submm observations of fractional
polarization scaled to match the high extinction end
of the
trend in stellar polarization (Jones, 2015). A model invoking loss of
alignment with optical depth is shown as a solid line.