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Collisions of gas particles with a drifting grain give rise to a mechanicaltorque on the grain. Recent work by Lazarian & Hoang showed that mechanicaltorques might play a significant role in aligning helical grains along theinterstellar magnetic field direction, even in the case of subsonic drift. Wecompute the mechanical torques on 13 different irregular grains and examinetheir resulting rotational dynamics, assuming steady rotation about theprincipal axis of greatest moment of inertia. We find that the alignmentefficiency in the subsonic drift regime depends sensitively on the grain shape,with more efficient alignment for shapes with a substantial mechanical torqueeven in the case of no drift. The alignment is typically more efficient forsupersonic drift. A more rigorous analysis of the dynamics is required todefinitively appraise the role of mechanical torques in grain alignment.

Alignment of interstellar grains by mechanical torques: suprathermally rotating Gaussian random spheres