Scattered Radiation of Protoplanetary Disks

Abstract

Scattered radiation of circumstellar (CS) dust plays an important role in the physics of young stars. Its observational manifestations are various but more often they are connected with the appearance of intrinsic polarization in young stars and their CS disks. In our brief review we consider two classes of astrophysical objects in which the participation of scattered radiation is key for understanding their nature. First of all, these are irregular variables (UX Ori type stars). The modern idea of their nature and the mechanism of their variability has been formed thanks to synchronous observations of their linear polarization and brightness. The second class of objects is the CS disks themselves. Their detailed investigation became possible due to observations in polarized light using a coronographic technique and large telescopes.