Magnetic Field Configuration at the Galactic Center Investigated by Wide Field Near-Infrared Polarimetry: Transition from a Toroidal to a Poloidal Magnetic Field

Details Magnetic Field Configuration at the Galactic Center Investigated by Wide Field Near-Infrared Polarimetry: Transition from a Toroidal to a Poloidal Magnetic Field Magnetic Field Configuration at the Galactic Center Investigated by Wide Field Near-Infrared Polarimetry: Transition from a Toroidal to a Poloidal Magnetic Field

2010-09-03

arxiv.org/abs/1009.0584v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Galaxy Astrophysics

12 pages, 3 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. For higher resolution, see http://www.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~

Scientific paper

We present a large-scale view of the magnetic field in the central 2deg * 2deg region of our Galaxy. The polarization of point sources has been measured in the J, H, and Ks bands using the near-infrared polarimetric camera SIRPOL on the 1.4 m telescope IRSF. Comparing the Stokes parameters between high extinction stars and relatively low extinction ones, we obtain polarization originating from magnetically aligned dust grains in the central few-hundred pc of our Galaxy. We find that near the Galactic plane, the magnetic field is almost parallel to the Galactic plane (i.e., toroidal configuration) but at high Galactic latitudes (| b | > 0.4deg), the field is nearly perpendicular to the plane (i.e., poloidal configuration). This is the first detection of a smooth transition of the large-scale magnetic field configuration in this region.

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