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The Magnetized Disk-Halo Transition Region of M51

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2020

M. Kierdorf ,
S. A. Mao ,
A. Fletcher ,
R. Beck ,
M. Haverkorn ,
A. Basu ,
F. Tabatabaei  and
J. Ott
M. Kierdorf
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121, Bonn, Germany email: kierdorf@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
S. A. Mao
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121, Bonn, Germany email: kierdorf@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
A. Fletcher
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Herschel Building, Newcastle University, NE1 7RU U.K.
R. Beck
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121, Bonn, Germany email: kierdorf@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
M. Haverkorn
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen; P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, Netherlands
A. Basu
Affiliation:
Fakultät für Physik, Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstr. 25, 33615 Bielefeld
F. Tabatabaei
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, San Cristóbal de La Laguna Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
J. Ott
Affiliation:
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 1003 Lopezville Road, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
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Abstract

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An excellent laboratory for studying large scale magnetic fields is the grand design face-on spiral galaxy M51. Due to wavelength-dependent Faraday depolarization, linearly polarized synchrotron emission at different radio frequencies gives a picture of the galaxy at different depths: Observations at L-band (1 – 2 GHz) probe the halo region while at C- and X-band (4 – 8 GHz) the linearly polarized emission probe the disk region of M51. We present new observations of M51 using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at S-band (2 – 4 GHz), where previously no polarization observations existed, to shed new light on the transition region between the disk and the halo. We discuss a model of the depolarization of synchrotron radiation in a multilayer magneto-ionic medium and compare the model predictions to the multi-frequency polarization data of M51 between 1 – 8 GHz. The new S-band data are essential to distinguish between different models. Our study shows that the initial model parameters, i.e. the total regular and turbulent magnetic field strengths in the disk and halo of M51, need to be adjusted to successfully fit the models to the data.

Keywords

polarizationGalaxies: spiralindividual (M51)magnetic fields
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 14 , Symposium A30: Astronomy in Focus XXX , August 2018 , pp. 319 - 322
Copyright
© International Astronomical Union 2020

References

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