Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Galaxy Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2009-03-17
Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 398: 1970,2009
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Galaxy Astrophysics
Published on MNRAS 2009
Scientific paper
We describe a technique for probing the statistical properties of cosmic magnetic fields based on radio polarimetry data. Second-order magnetic field statistics like the power spectrum cannot always distinguish between magnetic fields with essentially different spatial structure. Synchrotron polarimetry naturally allows certain 4th-order magnetic field statistics to be inferred from observational data, which lifts this degeneracy and can thereby help us gain a better picture of the structure of the cosmic fields and test theoretical scenarios describing magnetic turbulence. In this work we show that a 4th-order correlator of physical interest, the tension-force spectrum, can be recovered from the polarized synchrotron emission data. We develop an estimator for this quantity based on polarized-emission observations in the Faraday-rotation-free frequency regime. We consider two cases: a statistically isotropic field distribution, and a statistically isotropic field superimposed on a weak mean field. In both cases the tension force power spectrum is measurable; in the latter case, the magnetic power spectrum may also be obtainable. The method is exact in the idealized case of a homogeneous relativistic-electron distribution that has a power-law energy spectrum with a spectral index p=3, and assumes statistical isotropy of the turbulent field. We carry out tests of our method using synthetic data generated from numerically simulated magnetic fields. We show that the method is valid, that it is not prohibitively sensitive to the value of the electron spectral index, and that the observed tension-force spectrum allows one to distinguish between, e.g., a randomly tangled magnetic field (a default assumption in many studies) and a field organized in folded flux sheets or filaments.
Ensslin Torsten A.
Schekochihin Alexander A.
Waelkens Andre
No associations
LandOfFree
Probing magnetic turbulence by synchrotron polarimetry: statistics and structure of magnetic fields from Stokes correlators does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Probing magnetic turbulence by synchrotron polarimetry: statistics and structure of magnetic fields from Stokes correlators, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Probing magnetic turbulence by synchrotron polarimetry: statistics and structure of magnetic fields from Stokes correlators will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-400923