Electric dipole moments and disalignment of interstellar dust grains
  The degree to which interstellar grains align with respect to the
interstellar magnetic field depends on disaligning as well as aligning
mechanisms. For decades, it was assumed that disalignment was due primarily to
the random angular impulses a grain receives when colliding with gas-phase
atoms. Recently, a new disalignment mechanism has been considered, which may be
very potent for a grain that has a time-varying electric dipole moment and
drifts across the magnetic field. We provide quantitative estimates of the
disalignment times for silicate grains with size > approximately 0.1 micron.
These appear to be shorter than the time-scale for alignment by radiative
torques, unless the grains contain superparamagnetic inclusions.
