Date:
Tue, 21/01/201412:30-13:30
The Galactic Magnetic Field
Knowledge of the global structure of the Galactic magnetic field (GMF) is very hard to obtain, and until recently models have been seriously incomplete. I will describe work done in collaboration with R. Jansson to determine the GMF using Rotation Measures of 40,000 extragalactic sources and the WMAP synchrotron emission maps. To get a good description of that data, we developed a 22-parameter model of the coherent and striated components of the GMF and a 13-parameter model of the random field. The data required us to include features in the model that had been previously overlooked. Implications and open questions will be discussed.
Knowledge of the global structure of the Galactic magnetic field (GMF) is very hard to obtain, and until recently models have been seriously incomplete. I will describe work done in collaboration with R. Jansson to determine the GMF using Rotation Measures of 40,000 extragalactic sources and the WMAP synchrotron emission maps. To get a good description of that data, we developed a 22-parameter model of the coherent and striated components of the GMF and a 13-parameter model of the random field. The data required us to include features in the model that had been previously overlooked. Implications and open questions will be discussed.