Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T15:51:36.264Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The magnetic structure of our Galaxy: a review of observations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

JinLin Han
JinLin Han*
Affiliation:
National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jia-20 DaTun Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100012, China email: hjl@bao.ac.cn
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The magnetic structure in the Galactic disk, the Galactic center and the Galactic halo can be delineated more clearly than ever before. In the Galactic disk, the magnetic structure has been revealed by starlight polarization within 2 or 3 kpc of the Solar vicinity, by the distribution of the Zeeman splitting of OH masers in two or three nearby spiral arms, and by pulsar dispersion measures and rotation measures in nearly half of the disk. The polarized thermal dust emission of clouds at infrared, mm and submm wavelengths and the diffuse synchrotron emission are also related to the large-scale magnetic field in the disk. The rotation measures of extragalactic radio sources at low Galactic latitudes can be modeled by electron distributions and large-scale magnetic fields. The statistical properties of the magnetized interstellar medium at various scales have been studied using rotation measure data and polarization data. In the Galactic center, the non-thermal filaments indicate poloidal fields. There is no consensus on the field strength, maybe mG, maybe tens of μG. The polarized dust emission and much enhanced rotation measures of background radio sources are probably related to toroidal fields. In the Galactic halo, the antisymmetric RM sky reveals large-scale toroidal fields with reversed directions above and below the Galactic plane. Magnetic fields from all parts of our Galaxy are connected to form a global field structure. More observations are needed to explore the untouched regions and delineate how fields in different parts are connected.

Keywords

ISM: magnetic fields – Galaxy: structure – radio continuum: ISM
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 4 , Symposium S259: Cosmic Magnetic Fields: From Planets, to Stars and Galaxies , November 2008 , pp. 455 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2009

References

Armstrong, J. W., Rickett, B. J., & Spangler, S. R. 1995, ApJ 443, 209CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balsara, D. & Kim, J. 2005, ApJ 634, 390CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battaner, E. & Florido, E., 2007, AN 328, 92Google Scholar
Boulares, A. & Cox, D. 1990, ApJ 365, 544CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. C., Taylor, A. R., & Jackel, B. J. 2003, ApJS 145, 213CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. C., Haverkorn, M., Gaensler, B. M., et al. 2007, ApJ 663, 258CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caswell, J. L. 2003, MNRAS 341, 551CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandran, B. D. G. 2001, ApJ 562, 737CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chuss, D. T., Davidson, J. A., Dotson, J. L., & et al. 2003, ApJ 599, 1116CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clegg, A. W., Cordes, J. M., Simonetti, J. M., & Kulkarni, S. R. 1992, ApJ 386, 143CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cordes, J. M. & Lazio, T. J. W. 2002, preprint (arXiv:astro-ph/0207156)Google Scholar
Crutcher, R. M. 1999, ApJ 520, 706CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feinstein, C., Vergne, M. M., Martńez, R., & Orsatti, A. M., 2008, MNRAS 391, 447CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fish, V. L., Reid, M. J., Agron, A. L., & Menten, K. M., 2003, ApJ 596, 328CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaensler, B. M., Dickey, J. M., McClure-Griffiths, N. M., & et al. 2001, ApJ 549, 959CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, P. A. & Lyne, A. G. 1987, MNRAS 224, 1073CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, J. L., 2004, In: The Magnetized Interstellar Medium, eds: Uyaniker, B., et al. , GmbH, p. 3,Google Scholar
Han, J. L. & Qiao, G. J. 1994, A&A 288, 759Google Scholar
Han, J. L., Beck, R., Ehle, M., Haynes, R. F., & Wielebinski, R., 1999a, A&A 348, 405Google Scholar
Han, J. L., Ferriere, K., & Manchester, R. N. 2004, ApJ 610, 820CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, J. L., Manchester, R. N., Berkhuijsen, E. M., & Beck, R. 1997, A&A 322, 98Google Scholar
Han, J. L., Manchester, R. N., & Qiao, G. J. 1999b, MNRAS 306, 371CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, J. L., Manchester, R. N., Lyne, A. G., & Qiao, G. J. 2002, ApJ 570, L17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, J. L., Manchester, R. N., Lyne, A. G., Qiao, G. J., & van Straten, W. 2006, ApJ 642, 868.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Han, J. L., Zhang, J. S. 2007, A&A 464, 609Google Scholar
Haverkorn, M., Gaensler, B. M., Brown, J. C., et al. 2006, ApJ 637, L33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiles, C. 1996, ApJ 462, 316CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiles, C., 2000, AJ 119, 923CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heiles, C, & Crutcher, R. 2005, In: Cosmic Magnetic Fields, LNP 664, 137Google Scholar
Hildebrand, R. H., Davidson, J. A., Dotson, J. L., et al. , 2000, PASP 112, 1215CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Indrani, C. & Deshpande, A. A. 1999, New Astronomy 4, 33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Junkes, N., Fürst, E., & Reich, W. 1987, A&AS 69, 451Google Scholar
Lang, C. C., Morris, M., & Echevarria, L. 1999, ApJ 526, 727CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaRosa, T. N., Brogan, C. L., Shore, S. N., et al. 2005, ApJ 626, L23CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaRosa, T. N., Nord, M. E., Lazio, T. J. W., & Kassim, N. E. 2004, ApJ 607, 302CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, H., Griffin, G. S., Krejny, M., & et al. 2006, ApJ 648, 340CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyne, A. G. & Smith, F. G. 1989, MNRAS 237, 533CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manchester, R. N. 1974, ApJ 188, 637CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathewson, D. S. & Ford, V. L. 1970a, MemRAS 74, 139.Google Scholar
Men, H., Ferrière, K., & Han, J. L. 2008, A&A 486, 819Google Scholar
Minter, A. H. & Spangler, S. R. 1996, ApJ 458, 194CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitra, D., Wielebinski, R., Kramer, M., & Jessner, A. 2003, A&A 398, 993Google Scholar
Morris, M., Serabyn, , 1996, ARA&A 34, 645Google Scholar
Morris, M., Uchida, K., & Do, T. 2006, Nature 440, 308CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nord, M. E., Lazio, T. J. W., Kassim, N. E., et al. 2004, AJ 128, 1646CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novak, G., Chuss, D. T., Renbarger, T., & et al. 2003, ApJ 583, L83CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noutsos, A., Johnston, S., Kramer, M., & Karastergiou, A. 2008, MNRAS 386, 1881CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohno, H., Shibata, S., 1993, MNRAS 262, 953CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, L., et al. , 2007, ApJS 170, 335CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plante, R. L., Lo, K. Y., & Crutcher, R. M., 1995, ApJ 445, L113CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prouza, M. & Smída, R. 2003, A&A 410, 1Google Scholar
Qiao, G. J., Manchester, R. N., Lyne, A. G., & Gould, D. M. 1995, MNRAS 274, 572Google Scholar
Rand, R. J. & Kulkarni, S. R. 1989, ApJ 343, 760CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rand, R. J. & Lyne, A. G. 1994, MNRAS 268, 497CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reich, W. 2007, in: Cosmic Polarization, (astro-ph/0603465), p.91Google Scholar
Reid, M. J. & Silverstein, E. M., 1990, ApJ 361, 483CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, S., Rao, A. P., & Subrahmanyan, R. 2005, MNRAS 360, 1305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, S., Rao, A. P., & Subrahmanyan, R. 2008, A&A 478, 435Google Scholar
Sun, X. H. & Han, J. L. 2004, in: Magnetized Interstellar Medium, eds: Uyaniker, B., et al. , GmbH, p.25Google Scholar
Sun, X.H., Han, J.L., Reich, W., & et al. 2007, A&A 463, 993Google Scholar
Sun, X. H., Reich, W., Waelkens, A., & Enßlin, T. A. 2008, A&A 477, 573Google Scholar
Thomson, R. C. & Nelson, A. H. 1980, MNRAS 191, 863CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tinyakov, P. G. & Tkachev, I. I. 2002, Astroparticle Physics 18, 165CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisberg, J. M., Cordes, J. M., Kuan, , et al. 2004, ApJS 150, 317CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusef-Zadeh, F., Hewitt, J. W., & Cotton, W. A. 2004, ApJS 155, 421CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusef-Zadeh, F., Morris, M., & Chance, D. 1984, Nature 310, 557CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yusef-Zadeh, F., Roberts, D. A., Goss, W. M., et al. 1999, ApJ 512, 230CrossRefGoogle Scholar