2014/05/14 by Carl Shneider, M. Haverkorn, Marijke Haverkorn +2 · 16 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Computational physics #Context (archaeology) #Depolarization #Faraday cage #Faraday effect #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #Magnetic field #Optics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Synchrotron radiation #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201423470
published in Astronomy and Astrophysics 567, A82 (EDP Sciences) · Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 12 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables
arxiv created 2014/05/14 · openalex publication_date 2014/05/15 · arxiv updated 2014/09/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Depolarization of diffuse radio synchrotron emission is classified in terms of wavelength-independent and wavelength-dependent depolarization in the context of regular magnetic fields and of both isotropic and anisotropic turbulent magnetic fields. Previous analytical formulas for depolarization due to differential Faraday rotation are extended to include internal Faraday dispersion concomitantly, for a multilayer synchrotron emitting and Faraday rotating magneto-ionic medium. In particular, depolarization equations for a two- and three-layer system (disk-halo, halo-disk-halo) are explicitly derived. To both serve as a “user’s guide” to the theoretical machinery and as an approach for disentangling line-of-sight depolarization contributions in face-on galaxies, the analytical framework is applied to data from a small region in the face-on grand-design spiral galaxy M 51. The effectiveness of the multiwavelength observations in constraining the pool of physical depolarization scenarios is illustrated for a two- and three-layer model along with a Faraday screen system for an observationally motivated magnetic field configuration.