English

Gradient Technique Theory: Tracing magnetic field and obtaining magnetic field strength

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2024-06-04 v1 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

Abstract

The gradient technique is a promising tool with theoretical foundations based on the fundamental properties of MHD turbulence and turbulent reconnection. Its various incarnations use spectroscopic, synchrotron, and intensity data to trace the magnetic field and measure the media magnetization in terms of Alfven Mach number. We provide an analytical theory of gradient measurements and quantify the effects of averaging gradients along the line of sight and over the plane of the sky. We derive analytical expressions that relate the properties of gradient distribution with the Alfven Mach number MAM_A. We show that these measurements can be combined with measures of sonic Mach number or line broadening to obtain the magnetic field strength. The corresponding technique has advantages to Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi way of obtaining the magnetic field strength.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.01545,
  title  = {Gradient Technique Theory: Tracing magnetic field and obtaining magnetic field strength},
  author = {Alex Lazarian and Ka Ho Yuen and Dmitri Pogosyan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.01545},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

31 pages, 11 figures, submitted to ApJ