We present integrated polarization properties of nearby spiral galaxies at 4.8 GHz, and models for the integrated polarization of spiral galaxy disks as a function of inclination. Spiral galaxies in our sample have observed integrated fractional pola
rization in the range < 1% to 17.6%. At inclinations less than 50 degrees, the fractional polarization depends mostly on the ratio of random to regular magnetic field strength. At higher inclinations, Faraday depolarization associated with the regular magnetic field becomes more important. The observed degree of polarization is lower (<4%) for more luminous galaxies, in particular those with L_{4.8} > 2 x 10^{21} W/Hz. The polarization angle of the integrated emission is aligned with the apparent minor axis of the disk for galaxies without a bar. In our axially symmetric models, the polarization angle of the integrated emission is independent of wavelength. Simulated distributions of fractional polarization for randomly oriented spiral galaxies at 4.8 GHz and 1.4 GHz are presented. We conclude that polarization measurements, e.g. with the SKA, of unresolved spiral galaxies allow statistical studies of the magnetic field in disk galaxies using large samples in the local universe and at high redshift. As these galaxies behave as idealized background sources without internal Faraday rotation, they can be used to detect large-scale magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium.
Predictions of the number of faint polarised radio sources that can be detected by SKA pathfinder telescopes and the SKA depend on the polarisation properties of radio sources with a total flux density around 1 mJy. Total intensity source counts sugg
est a transition in the dominant population from AGN to galaxies around this flux density, and the properties of brighter radio sources may not be representative for this fainter population. We show that unresolved spiral galaxies can be highly polarised radio sources, up to ~ 20% polarised at 4.8 GHz. This result is partly based on observations of nearby galaxies, including galaxies with significant deviations from axial symmetry and other peculiarities. A first analysis of polarised source counts divided into steep-spectrum AGN, flat-spectrum AGN and star forming galaxies is presented, including a prediction of polarised source counts to microjansky levels.
We report depolarization of extragalactic sources in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) by local structures in the interstellar medium. The sky density of polarized sources drops by a factor 2 - 4 in regions with angular scales approx. 10 degrees, implyi
ng up to 40% depolarization on average per source. Some of these polarization shadows are associated with HII regions, but three are associated with regions of depolarized diffuse Galactic emission. The absence of a correlation between the depth of polarization shadows and H-alpha intensity suggests that some shadows are related to structure in the magnetic field. At least some polarization shadows are caused by partial bandwidth depolarization in the NVSS. Alternatively, some may be caused by regions with small scale (< 1 arcsec) variations in rotation measure.
We present deep polarimetric observations at 1420 MHz of the European Large Area ISO Survey North 1 region (ELAIS N1) as part of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory Planck Deep Fields project. By combining closely spaced aperture synthesis f
ields, we image a region of 7.43 square degrees to a maximum sensitivity in Stokes Q and U of 78 microJy/beam, and detect 786 compact sources in Stokes I. Of these, 83 exhibit polarized emission. We find that the differential source counts (log N - log p) for polarized sources are nearly constant down to p > 500 microJy, and that these faint polarized radio sources are more highly polarized than the strong source population. The median fractional polarization is (4.8 +/- 0.7)% for polarized sources with Stokes I flux density between 1 and 30 mJy; approximately three times larger than sources with I > 100 mJy. The majority of the polarized sources have been identified with galaxies in the Spitzer Wide Area Infrared Extragalactic Survey (SWIRE) image of ELAIS N1. Most of the galaxies occupy regions in the IRAC 5.8/3.6 micron vs. 8.0/4.5 micron color-color diagram associated with dusty AGNs, or with ellipticals with an aging stellar population. A few host galaxies have colors that suggests significant PAH emission in the near-infrared. A small fraction, 12%, of the polarized sources are not detected in the SWIRE data. None of the polarized sources in our sample appears to be associated with an actively star-forming galaxy.
