Near-Infrared Polarimetry toward the Galactic Center

Details Near-Infrared Polarimetry toward the Galactic Center Near-Infrared Polarimetry toward the Galactic Center

2008-09-29

arxiv.org/abs/0809.4945v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

5 pages, 2 figures; to be published in: Astronomical Polarimetry 2008: Science from Small to Large Telescopes, ASP Conference

Scientific paper

Near-infrared polarimetry of point sources reveals the presence of a toroidal magnetic field in the central 20' x 20' region of our Galaxy. Comparing the Stokes parameters between high extinction stars and relatively low extinction ones, we have obtained a polarization originating from magnetically aligned dust grains at the central region of our Galaxy of at most 1-2 kpc. The derived direction of the magnetic field is in good agreement with that obtained from far-infrared/submillimeter observations, which detect polarized thermal emission from dust in the molecular clouds at the Galactic center. Our results show that by subtracting foreground components, near-infrared polarimetry allows investigation of the magnetic field structure at the Galactic center. The distribution of the position angles shows a peak at around 20deg, nearly parallel to the direction of the Galactic plane, suggesting a toroidal magnetic configuration.

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