Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-03-30
Astron.Astrophys. 421 (2004) 1011-1019
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
9 pages, 9 figures, accepted by A&A
Scientific paper
10.1051/0004-6361:20034444
Multi-frequency radio polarimetric observations of the diffuse Galactic synchrotron background enable us to study the structure of the diffuse ionized gas via rotation measure maps. However, depolarization will introduce artifacts in the resulting rotation measure, most notably in the form of narrow, elongated ``depolarization canals''. We use numerical models of a non-emitting Faraday rotating medium to study the RM distribution needed to create depolarization canals by depolarization due to a finite beam width, and to estimate the influence of this depolarization mechanism on the determination of RM. We argue that the depolarization canals indeed can be caused by beam depolarization, which in turn is a natural consequence when observing a turbulent medium with limited resolution. Furthermore, we estimate that beam depolarization can induce an additional error of about 20% in RM determinations, and considerably less in regions that are not affected by depolarization canals.
Haverkorn Marijke
Heitsch Fabian
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