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Register a new userThe Magnetized Disk-Halo Transition Region of M51
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An excellent laboratory for studying large scale magnetic fields is the grand de- sign face-on spiral galaxy M51. Due to wavelength-dependent Faraday depolarization, linearly polarized synchrotron emission at different radio frequencies gives a picture of the galaxy at different depths: Observations at L-band (1-2 GHz) probe the halo region while at C- and X- band (4-8 GHz) the linearly polarized emission probe the disk region of M51. We present new observations of M51 using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) at S-band (2-4 GHz), where previously no polarization observations existed, to shed new light on the transition region between the disk and the halo. We discuss a model of the depolarization of synchrotron radiation in a multilayer magneto-ionic medium and compare the model predictions to the multi-frequency polarization data of M51 between 1-8GHz. The new S-band data are essential to distinguish between different models. Our study shows that the initial model parameters, i.e. the total reg- ular and turbulent magnetic field strengths in the disk and halo of M51, need to be adjusted to successfully fit the models to the data.
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The grand-design face-on spiral galaxy M51 is an excellent laboratory for studying magnetic fields in galaxies. We present new observations of M51 using the VLA at the frequency range of S-band (2-4GHz), to shed new light on the transition region between the disk and halo. We present images of the distributions of the total intensity, polarized intensity, degree of polarization, and rotation measure (RM). The RM distribution in S-band shows a fluctuating pattern without any apparent large-scale structure. We discuss a model of the depolarization of synchrotron radiation in a multi-layer magneto-ionic medium and compare the model predictions to the polarization data of M51 between 1-8GHz. Since the model predictions strongly differ within the wavelength range of the S-band, the new data are essential. The parameters of the model are adjusted to fit to the data of polarization fractions in a few selected regions. In three spiral arm regions, the turbulent field in the disk dominates with strengths between 18muG and 24muG, while the regular field strengths are 8-16muG. In one inter-arm region, the regular field strength of 18muG exceeds that of the turbulent field of 11muG. The regular field strengths in the halo are 3-5muG. The observed RMs in the disk-halo transition region are probably dominated by tangled regular fields, as predicted from models of evolving dynamos, and/or vertical fields, as predicted from numerical simulations of Parker instabilities or galactic winds. Both types of magnetic fields have frequent reversals on scales similar to or larger than the beam size (550pc) that contribute to an increase of the RM dispersion and to distortions of any large-scale pattern of the regular field. Our study devises new ways of analyzing and interpreting broadband multi-frequency polarization data that will be applicable to future data from, for example, the Square Kilometre Array.
Using 21cm HI observations from the Parkes Radio Telescopes Galactic All-Sky Survey, we measure 255 HI clouds in the lower Galactic halo that are located near the tangent points at 16.9 < l < 35.3 degrees and |b| < 20 degrees. The clouds have a median mass of 700 Msun and a median distance from the Galactic plane of 660 pc. This first Galactic quadrant (QI) region is symmetric to a region of the fourth quadrant (QIV) studied previously using the same data set and measurement criteria. The properties of the individual clouds in the two quadrants are quite similar suggesting that they belong to the same population, and both populations have a line of sight cloud-cloud velocity dispersion of sigma_cc ~ 16 km/s. However, there are three times as many disk-halo clouds at the QI tangent points and their scale height, at h=800 pc, is twice as large as in QIV. Thus the observed line of sight random cloud motions are not connected to the cloud scale height or its variation around the Galaxy. The surface density of clouds is nearly constant over the QI tangent point region but is peaked near R~4 kpc in QIV. We ascribe all of these differences to the coincidental location of the QI region at the tip of the Milky Ways bar, where it merges with a major spiral arm. The QIV tangent point region, in contrast, covers only a segment of a minor spiral arm. The disk-halo HI cloud population is thus likely tied to and driven by large-scale star formation processes, possibly through the mechanism of supershells and feedback.
Charge exchange (CX) emission reveals the significant interaction between neutral and ionized interstellar medium (ISM) components of the dense, multiphase, circumnuclear region of a galaxy. We use a model including a thermal and a CX components to describe the high-resolution XMM-Newton/RGS spectrum of the diffuse emission in the central region of M51. Representative signatures of CX emission -- especially the prominent OVII forbidden line and the excess emission in the OVIII Ly$gamma$ lines -- can be well explained by the model. Combined with the Chandra images in the OVIII and the OVII bands, we find the soft X-ray emission is dominated by the jet-driven outflow and its interaction with the ambient neutral material. The jet-driven outflow itself is likely a thermal plasma of $sim 0.59$ keV, with mostly sub-solar abundances. It runs into the ambient neutral gas, and produces significant CX emission that accounts for one-fifth of the diffuse X-ray emission in the 7--28 {AA} band. The effective interface area in the CX process is one order of magnitude greater than the geometrical surface area of the jet-driven outflow. The tenuous outflow driven by the nuclear star formation may also contribute a small portion to both the diffuse thermal and CX emission. The photoionization by the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and the resonance scattering by the hot gas itself are disfavored, though the effects from past AGN events may not be ruled out.
The problem of interaction of the rotating magnetic field, frozen to a star, with a thin well conducting accretion disk is solved exactly. It is shown that a disk pushes the magnetic field lines towards a star, compressing the stellar dipole magnetic field. At the point of corotation, where the Keplerian rotation frequency coincides with the frequency of the stellar rotation, the loop of the electric current appears. The electric currents flow in the magnetosphere only along two particular magnetic surfaces, which connect the corotation region and the inner edge of a disk with the stellar surface. It is shown that the closed current surface encloses the magnetosphere. Rotation of a disk is stopped at some distance from the stellar surface, which is 0.55 of the corotation radius. Accretion from a disk spins up the stellar rotation. The angular momentum transferred to the star is determined.
We present a study of the magneto-ionic medium in the Whirlpool galaxy (M51) using new wide-band multi-configuration polarization data at L band (1-2 GHz) obtained at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. By fitting the observed diffuse complex polarization $Q$+$iU$ as a function of wavelength directly to various depolarization models, we find that polarized emission from M51 at 1-2 GHz originates from the top of the synchrotron disk and then experiences Faraday rotation in the near-side thermal halo of the galaxy. Thus, the scale height of the thermal gas must exceed that of the synchrotron emitting gas at L band. The observed Faraday depth distribution at L band is consistent with a halo field that comprises of a plane-parallel bisymmetric component and a vertical component which produces a Faraday rotation of $sim$ $-$9 rad m$^{-2}$. The derived rotation measure structure functions indicate a characteristic scale of rotation measure fluctuations of less than 560 pc in the disk and approximately 1 kpc in the halo. The outer scale of turbulence of 1 kpc found in the halo of M51 is consistent with superbubbles and the Parker instability being the main energy injection mechanisms in galactic halos.
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