Infrared Polarimetry of the Stars in the Inner Galaxy

Abstract

Near-infrared photometric and Polarimetrie observations were made for stars embedded in the galactic plane. The sources were picked up from two selected regions in the galactic plane (l = 20° and 30°). In total, 59 sources were observed, 35 of which were observed with polarimetry in the K-band (2.2 μm) and 44 were observed with photometry by the near-infrared broad band system. The observations were made by using the 2.2 m telescope of the University of Hawaii on Mauna Kea. The polarizations have been determined from observations made by a Polarimeter with a rotating half-wave retarder. The instrumental polarization is always less than 0.05%, much smaller than the detected polarizations.