2004/06/24 by M. Haverkorn, P. Katgert, A. G. de Bruyn · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:200400042
published as Astron.Astrophys. 427 (2004) 169-177 · 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted by A&A
arxiv created 2004/06/24 · openalex publication_date 2004/10/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
We describe a first attempt to derive properties of the regular and turbulent Galactic magnetic field from multi-frequency polarimetric observations of the diffuse Galactic synchrotron background. A single-cell-size model of the thin Galactic disk is constructed which includes random and regular magnetic fields and thermal and relativistic electrons. The disk is irradiated from behind with a uniform partially polarized background. Radiation from the background and from the thin disk is Faraday rotated and depolarized while propagating through the medium. The model parameters are estimated from a comparison with 350 MHz observations in two regions at intermediate latitudes done with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. We obtain good agreement between the estimates for the random and regular magnetic field strengths and typical scales of structure in the two regions. The regular magnetic field strength found is a few μG, and the ratio of random to regular magnetic field strength is , for a typical scale of the random component of pc. Furthermore, the regular magnetic field is directed almost perpendicular to the line of sight. This modeling is a potentially powerful method to estimate the structure of the Galactic magnetic field, especially when more polarimetric observations of the diffuse synchrotron background at intermediate latitudes become available.