Polarization as a Probe of Thick Dust Disk in Edge-on Galaxies: Application to NGC 891

Radiative transfer models were developed to understand the optical polarizations in edge-on galaxies, which are observed to occur even outside the geometrically thin dust disk, with a scale height of ~0.2 kpc. In order to reproduce the vertically extended polarization structure, we find it is essential to include a geometrically thick dust layer in the radiative transfer model, in addition to the commonly-known thin dust layer. The models include polarizations due to both dust scattering and dichroic extinction which is responsible for the observed interstellar polarization in the Milky Way. It is found that the magnetic fields in edge-on galaxies are in general vertical (or poloidal) except the central part, where the magnetic fields are mainly toroidal. We also find that the polarization level is enhanced if the clumpiness of the interstellar medium, and the dichroic extinction by vertical magnetic fields in the outer regions of the dust lane are included in the radiative transfer model. The predicted degree of polarization outside the dust lane was found to be consistent with that (ranging from 1% to 4%) observed in NGC 891.