English

Magnetic Field at the Galactic Centre from Multi-Wavelength Dust Polarization

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2024-06-12 v2

Abstract

We have mapped the magnetic field (BB-field) for a region of about 30 pc around the centre of our Galaxy, which encompasses the circumnuclear disk (CND), the minispiral, and the 20 km s1^{-1} and 50 km s1^{-1} molecular clouds, using thermal dust polarization observations obtained from SOFIA/HAWC+ and JCMT/SCUPOL. We decompose the spectra of 12^{12}CO (J ⁣= ⁣3 ⁣ ⁣2J\!=\!3\!\rightarrow\!2) transition from this region into individual cloud components and find the polarization observed at different wavelengths might be tracing completely different layers of dust along the line of sight. We use modified Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi methods to measure the strength of BB-field projected in the plane of the sky (BPOSB_{{}_{\mathrm{POS}}}). The mean BPOSB_{{}_{\mathrm{POS}}} of the CND and the minispiral, probed at 53 μ\mum is of the order of  ⁣2\sim\!2 mG. BPOS ⁣ ⁣ ⁣< ⁣1B_{{}_{\mathrm{POS}}}\!\!\!<\!1 mG close to the Galactic Centre, in the region of the ionized mini-cavity within the CND, and increases outwards. However, the longer wavelength polarization at 216 μ\mum appears to come from a dust layer that is cooler and behind the CND and has a stronger BB-field of about 7 mG. The BB-field strength is lowest along the Eastern Arm of the minispiral, which is also the only region with Alfv\'en Mach number, MA>1\mathcal{M}_{\mathrm{A}}>1 and mass-to-flux ratio, λ ⁣ ⁣1\lambda\!\gtrsim\!1. Such an observed weak BB-field could be a result of the low resolution of the observation, where the tangled BB-fields due to the strong turbulence in the high density clumps of the CND are lost within the beam size of the observation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.15098,
  title  = {Magnetic Field at the Galactic Centre from Multi-Wavelength Dust Polarization},
  author = {M. S. Akshaya and Thiem Hoang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.15098},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

19 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for Publication in MNRAS