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Magnetic Fields in the Milky Way Halo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2015

S. A. Mao ,
N. M. McClure-Griffiths ,
B. M. Gaensler ,
J. C. Brown ,
C. L. van Eck ,
M. Haverkorn ,
P. P. Kronberg ,
J. M. Stil ,
A. Shukurov  and
A. R. Taylor
S. A. Mao
Affiliation:
Jansky Fellow, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, P.O. Box O, Socorro, NM 87801, USA email: [email protected] Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA
N. M. McClure-Griffiths
Affiliation:
CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia Telescope National Facility, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
B. M. Gaensler
Affiliation:
Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
J. C. Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Institute for Space Imaging Science, University of Calgary, AB, Canada
C. L. van Eck
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Institute for Space Imaging Science, University of Calgary, AB, Canada
M. Haverkorn
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysics, Radboud University, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
P. P. Kronberg
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, M5S 1A7, Canada
J. M. Stil
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Institute for Space Imaging Science, University of Calgary, AB, Canada
A. Shukurov
Affiliation:
School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK
A. R. Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Institute for Space Imaging Science, University of Calgary, AB, Canada
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Abstract

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We present a study of the Milky Way halo magnetic field, determined from observations of Faraday rotation measure (RM) of extragalactic radio sources (EGS) in Galactic longitude range 100°–117° within 30° of the Galactic plane. We find negative median RMs in both the northern and southern Galactic hemispheres for |b|>15°, outside the latitude range where the disk field dominates. This suggest that the halo magnetic field towards the outer Galaxy does not reverse direction across the mid-plane. An azimuthal magnetic field at heights 0.8−2 kpc above/below the Galactic plane between the local and the Perseus spiral arm can reproduce the observed trend of RM against Galactic latitude. We propose that the Milky Way could have a halo magnetic field similar to that observed in M51.

Keywords

Galaxy: haloISM: magnetic fieldspolarization
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 10 , Highlights H16: Highlights of Astronomy , August 2012 , pp. 403
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2015 

References

Mao, S. A., McClure-Griffiths, N. M., Gaensler, B. M., Brown, J. C., van Eck, C. L., Haverkorn, M., Kronberg, P. P., Stil, J. M., Shukurov, A., & Taylor, A. R. 2012, ApJ 755, 21Google Scholar