Research on magnetic fields of galaxies using RZ-model

The generation of magnetic fields of galaxies is usually described by the dynamo mechanism.This process is characterized by the Steenbeck-Krause-Radler equation,which is the result of averaging the magnetohydrodynamics equations by distances which are associated with the size of turbulent cells in the interstellar medium.This equation is quite difficult to solve both from an analytical and numerical point of view.For galaxies,the no-z approximation is widely used.It describes the magnetic fields in thin discs.For such objects,where it is important to study the vertical structure of the field,it is not very applicable,so it is quite useful to adopt the RZ-model,which takes into account the dependence of the distance from the equatorial plane.During our research we have obtained the critical values of the dynamo number for galaxies with large half-thickness.We have also described typical z-structure for the magnetic field.Moreover,we have demonstrated that it is possible to generate dipolar magnetic fields.

Milestones in the Observations of Cosmic Magnetic Fields

Magnetic fields are observed everywhere in the universe. In this review, we concentrate on the observational aspects of the magnetic fields of Galactic and extragalactic objects. Readers can follow the milestones in the observations of cosmic magnetic fields obtained from the most important tracers of magnetic fields, namely, the star-light polarization, the Zeeman effect, the rotation measures (RMs, hereafter) of extragalactic radio sources, the pulsar RMs, radio polarization observations, as well as the newly implemented sub-mm and mm polarization capabilities. The magnetic field of the Galaxy was first discovered in 1949 by optical polarization observations. The local magnetic fields within one or two kpc have been well delineated by starlight polarization data. The polarization observations of diffuse Galactic radio background emission in 1962 confirmed unequivocally the existence of a Galactic magnetic field. The bulk of the present information about the magnetic fields in the Galaxy comes from analysis of rotation measures of extragalactic radio sources and pulsars, which can be used to construct the 3-D magnetic field structure in the Galactic halo and Galactic disk. Radio synchrotron spurs in the Galactic center show a poloidal field, and the polarization mapping of dust emission and Zeeman observation in the central molecular zone reveal a toroidal magnetic field parallel to the Galactic plane. For nearby galaxies, both optical polarization and multifrequency radio polarization data clearly show the large-scale magnetic field following the spiral arms or dust lanes. For more distant objects, radio polarization is the only approach available to show the magnetic fields in the jets or lobes of radio galaxies or quasars. Clusters of galaxies also contain widely distributed magnetic fields, which are reflected by radio halos or the RM distribution of background objects. The intergalactic space could have been magnetized by outflows or galactic superwinds even in the early universe. The Zeeman effect and polarization of sub-mm and mm emission can be used for the study of magnetic fields in some Galactic molecular clouds but it is observed only at high intensity. Both approaches together can clearly show the role that magnetic fields play in star formation and cloud structure, which in principle would be analogous to galaxy formation from protogalactic clouds. The origin of the cosmic magnetic fields is an active field of research. A primordial magnetic field has not been as yet directly detected, but itsexistence must be considered to give the seed field necessary for many amplification processes that have been developed. Possibly, the magnetic fields were generated in protogalactic plasma clouds by the dynamo process, and maintained again by the dynamo after galaxies were formed.

Time delay and extended halo for constraints on the intergalactic magnetic field

Primary gamma rays emitted from extragalactic very-high-energy （VHE） sources, such as blazars, will generate cascade radiation in intergalactic space with a scale of -- 100 Mpc, for z - 0.1 and Eγ -1 TeV. These cascades proceed through electron-positron pair production and inverse Compton （IC） scattering in the cosmic background radiation fields, mainly cosmic microwave background （CMB） radiation and extragalactic background light in the voids of the universe. The existence of an intergalactic magnetic field （IGMF） would deflect paths of electron-positron pairs that scatter CMB photons, causing some observable effects, such as time delay, an ex- tended halo, and a spectral change. Here we reanalyze the diffusion of an electron jet deflected by IGMF and propose a unified semi-analytical model. By using publicly available data from the Fermi/LAT detector and contemporaneous TeV observations, we find that the cascade photon flux is not significantly affected by the IGMF strength for non-variable blazars when the IGMF is weaker than ,-~ 10-16 G. This result is clearly different from previous works that analyzed the extended halo and time de- lay separately for non-variable blazars and flaring blazars. By applying our model to two extreme blazars （1ES 0229＋200 and 1ES 1218＋304）, we obtain the IGMF lower limit of order ≥10-13 --10-14 G in the non-variable case, which is a stronger constraint on the IGMF strength than previous works （≥10-16 ,-- 10-18 G）, and ≥10-18 -- 10-19 G in the case of flaring blazars. Furthermore, we study the light curves and extended halo of the cascade photons by considering the effects of the IGME

The Relative Orientation between Local Magnetic Field and Galactic Plane in Low Latitude Dark Clouds

In this work,we study the magnetic field morphology of selected star-forming clouds spread over the galactic latitude(b)range−10°to 10°.The polarimetric observations of clouds CB24,CB27 and CB188 are conducted to study the magnetic field geometry of those clouds using the 104 cm Sampurnanand Telescope(ST)located at ARIES,Manora Peak,Nainital,India.These observations are combined with those of 14 further low latitude clouds available in the literature.Most of these clouds are located within a distance range 140–500 pc except for CB3(∼2500 pc),CB34(∼1500 pc),CB39(∼1500 pc)and CB60(∼1500 pc).Analyzing the polarimetric data of 17 clouds,we find that the alignment between the envelope magnetic field(θ^(env)_(B))and galactic plane(GP)(θGP)of the low-latitude clouds varies with their galactic longitudes(l).We observe a strong correlation between the longitude(l)and the offset(θ_(off)=|θ^(env)_(B)-θ_(GP))which shows that θ^(env)_(B) is parallel to the GP when the clouds are situated in the region 115°<l<250°.However,θ^(env)_(B) has its own local deflection irrespective of the orientation of θGP when the clouds are at l<100°and l>250°.To check the consistency of our results,the stellar polarization data available in the Heiles catalog are overlaid on the DSS image of the clouds having mean polarization vector of field stars.The results are almost consistent with the Heiles data.A systematic discussion is presented in the paper.The effect of turbulence in the cloud is also studied which may play an important role in causing the misalignment phenomenon observed between θ^(env)_(B) and θ_(GP).We have used Herschel(Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.)SPIRE 500μm and SCUBA 850μm dust continuum emission maps in our work to understand the density structure of the clouds.

Estimate of an environmental magnetic field of fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts （FRBs） are a type of newly-discovered transient astronomical phenomenon. They have short durations, high dispersion measures and a high event rate. However, due to unknown dis- tances and undetected electromagnetic counterparts at other wavebands, it is difficult to further investigate FRBs. Here we propose a method to study their environmental magnetic field using an indirect method. Starting withdispersion measures and rotation measures （RMs）, we try to obtain the parallel magnetic field component ^-B ││ which is the average value along the line of sight in the host galaxy. Because both RMs and redshifls are now unavailable, we demonstrate the dependence of ^-B ││ on these two separate quantities. This result, if the RM and redshift of an FRB are measured, would be expected to provide a clue towards understanding an environmental magnetic field of an FRB.

Constraining evolution of magnetic field strength in the dissipation region of two BL Lac objects

With the assumption that the optical variability timescale is dominated by the cooling time of the synchrotron process for BL Lac objects,we estimate time dependent magnetic field strength of the emission region for two BL Lac objects.The average magnetic field strengths are consistent with those estimated from core shift measurement and spectral energy distribution modelling.Variation of magnetic field strength in the dissipation region is discovered.Variability of flux and magnetic field strength shows no clear correlation,which indicates the variation of magnetic field is not the dominant reason of the variability origin.The evolution of magnetic field strength can provide another approach to constrain the energy dissipation mechanism in jets.

New Continuum Observations of the Andromeda galaxy M31 with FAST

We present a new total intensity image of M31 at 1.248 GHz,observed with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio telescope(FAST)with an angular resolution of 4'and a sensitivity of about 16 mK.The new FAST image clearly reveals weak emission outside the ring due to its high sensitivity on large-scale structures.We derive a scale length of 2.7 kpc for the cosmic ray electrons and find that the cosmic ray electrons propagate mainly through diffusion by comparing the scale length at 4.8 GHz.The spectral index of the total intensity varies along the ring,which can be attributed to the variation of the spectra of synchrotron emission.This variation is likely caused by the change of star formation rates along the ring.We find that the azimuthal profile of the non-thermal emission can be interpreted by an axisymmetric large-scale magnetic field with varying pitch angle along the ring,indicating a complicated magnetic field configuration in M31.

The dying accretion and jet in a powerful radio galaxy of Hercules A

Hercules A(Her A)is one of a rare class of dying and transition-type objects,which has a pair of giant,powerful radio lobes and a weak radio core.We reduce and analyze the radio data of Her A that were observed by the Expanded Very Large Array(EVLA)during 2010-2011 at C band.The intensity distribution is very smooth along the edge of the lobe front and the intensity also sharply decreases at the edge,which supports that magnetic fields may play an important role in radio lobes.The spectrum of the weak core is very steep and the core flux becomes weaker by about ten percent when compared to what was observed twenty years ago,which suggest that the central engine is still dying quickly.Her A deviates a lot from the relation between[O III]luminosity and low-frequency 178 MHz luminosity(LO III-L178 MHz)as defined by other FR I/II sources.However,when only radio core emission is considered,it roughly follows an LO III-L178 MHzcorrelation.This result supports that the black-hole accretion and large-scale jet in Her A did not evolve simultaneously,and indicates that although the large-scale jet is still powerful,the accretion and inner jet have changed into an inactive state.Based on the estimated Bondi accretion rate,we model the spectrum of Her A with a radiatively inefficient accretion flow and jet model.

Polarization Position Angle Swings caused by Relativistic Effects

Polarization position angle swings of 180° observed in extragalactic radio sources are a regular behavior of variability in polarization. They should be due to some kind of physically regular process. We consider relativistic shocks which propagate through and `illuminate' regular configurations of magnetic field, producing polarization angle swing events. Two magnetic field configurations (force-free field and homogeneous helical field) are considered to demonstrate the results. It is shown that the properties of polarization angle swings and the relationship between the swings and variations in total and polarized flux density are critically dependent on the configuration of magnetic field and the dynamical behavior of the shock. In particular, we find that in some cases polarization angle swings can occur when the total and polarized flux densities only vary by a very small amount. These results may be useful for understanding the polarization variability with both long and short timescales observed in extragalactic radio sources.