E. Carretti

Giant magnetized outflows from the centre of the Milky Way

The nucleus of the Milky Way is known to harbour regions of intense star formation activity as well as a supermassive black hole. Recent observations have revealed regions of γ-ray emission reaching far above and below the Galactic Centre (relative to the Galactic plane), the so-called ‘Fermi bubbles’. It is uncertain whether these were generated by nuclear star formation or by quasar-like outbursts of the central black hole and no information on the structures’ magnetic field has been reported. Here we report observations of two giant, linearly polarized radio lobes, containing three ridge-like substructures, emanating from the Galactic Centre. The lobes each extend about 60 degrees in the Galactic bulge, closely corresponding to the Fermi bubbles, and are permeated by strong magnetic fields of up to 15 microgauss. We conclude that the radio lobes originate in a biconical, star-formation-driven (rather than black-hole-driven) outflow from the Galaxy’s central 200 parsecs that transports a huge amount of magnetic energy, about 1055 ergs, into the Galactic halo. The ridges wind around this outflow and, we suggest, constitute a ‘phonographic’ record of nuclear star formation activity over at least ten million years.

A search for diffuse radio emission in the relaxed, cool-core galaxy clusters A1068, A1413, A1650, A1835, A2029, and Ophiuchus

Aims. We analyze sensitive, high-dynamic-range, observations to search for extended, diffuse, radio emission in relaxed and coolcore galaxy clusters. Methods. We performed deep 1.4 GHz Very Large Array observations, of A1068, A1413, A1650, A1835, A2029, and complemented our dataset with archival observations of Ophiuchus. Results. We find that, in the central regions of A1835, A2029, and Ophiuchus, the dominant radio galaxy is surrounded by diffuse low-brightness radio emission that takes the form of a mini-halo. We detect no diffuse emission in A1650, at a surface brightness level of the other mini-halos. We find low significance indications of diffuse emission in A1068 and A1413, although to be classified as mini-halos they would require further investigation, possibly with data of higher signal-to-noise ratio. In the Appendix, we report on the serendipitous detection of a giant radio galaxy with a total spatial extension of ∼1.6 Mpc.

Comparative analysis of the diffuse radio emission in the galaxy clusters A1835, A2029, and Ophiuchus

Aims. We recently performed a study of a sample of relaxed, cooling core galaxy clusters with deep Very Large Array observations at 1.4 GHz. We find that in the central regions of A1835, A2029, and Ophiuchus the dominant radio galaxy is surrounded by a diffuse low-brightness radio emission that takes the form of a mini-halo. Here we present the results of the analysis of the extended diffuse radio emission in these mini-halos. Methods. In order to investigate the morphological properties of the diffuse radio emission in clusters of galaxies we propose to fit their azimuthally averaged brightness profile with an exponential, obtaining the central brightness and the e -folding radius from which the radio emissivity can be calculated. We investigate the radio properties of the mini-halos in A1835, A2029, and Ophiuchus in comparison with the radio properties of a representative sample of mini-halos and halos already known in the literature. Results. We find that radio halos can have quite different length-scales but their emissivity is remarkably similar from one halo to the other. In contrast, mini-halos span a wide range of radio emissivity. Some of them, like the Perseus mini-halo, are characterized by a radio emissivity which is more than 100 times greater than that of radio halos. On the other hand, the new mini-halos in cooling core clusters analyzed in this work, namely A2029, Ophiuchus, and A1835, have a radio emissivity which is much more typical of halos in merging clusters rather than similar to that of the other mini-halos previously known.

Complex Faraday depth structure of active galactic nuclei as revealed by broad‐band radio polarimetry

We present a detailed study of the Faraday depth structure of four bright (>1 Jy), strongly polarized, unresolved radio-loud quasars. The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) was used to observe these sources with 2 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth from 1.1 to 3.1 GHz. This allowed us to spectrally resolve the polarization structure of spatially unresolved radio sources, and by fitting various Faraday rotation models to the data, we conclusively demonstrate that two of the sources cannot be described by a simple rotation measure (RM) component modified by depolarization from a foreground Faraday screen. Our results have important implications for using background extragalactic radio sources as probes of the Galactic and intergalactic magneto-ionic media as we show how RM estimations from narrow-bandwidth observations can give erroneous results in the presence of multiple interfering Faraday components. We postulate that the additional RM components arise from polarized structure in the compact inner regions of the radio source itself and not from polarized emission from galactic or intergalactic foreground regions. We further suggest that this may contribute significantly to any RM time variability seen in RM studies on these angular scales. Follow-up, high-sensitivity very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of these sources will directly test our predictions.

Estimating extragalactic Faraday rotation

Observations of Faraday rotation for extragalactic sources probe magnetic fields both inside and outside the Milky Way. Building on our earlier estimate of the Galactic contribution, we set out to estimate the extragalactic contributions. We discuss the problems involved; in particular, we point out that taking the difference between the observed values and the Galactic foreground reconstruction is not a good estimate for the extragalactic contributions. We point out a degeneracy between the contributions to the observed values due to extragalactic magnetic fields and observational noise and comment on the dangers of over-interpreting an estimate without taking into account its uncertainty information. To overcome these difficulties, we develop an extended reconstruction algorithm based on the assumption that the observational uncertainties are accurately described for a subset of the data, which can overcome the degeneracy with the extragalactic contributions. We present a probabilistic derivation of the algorithm and demonstrate its performance using a simulation, yielding a high quality reconstruction of the Galactic Faraday rotation foreground, a precise estimate of the typical extragalactic contribution, and a well-defined probabilistic description of the extragalactic contribution for each data point. We then apply this reconstruction technique to a catalog of Faraday rotation observations for extragalactic sources. The analysis is done for several different scenarios, for which we consider the error bars of different subsets of the data to accurately describe the observational uncertainties. By comparing the results, we argue that a split that singles out only data near the Galactic poles is the most robust approach. We find that the dispersion of extragalactic contributions to observed Faraday depths is most likely lower than 7 rad/m(2), in agreement with earlier results, and that the extragalactic contribution to an individual data point is poorly constrained by the data in most cases.

High Galactic latitude polarized emission at 1.4 GHz and implications for cosmic microwave background observations

We analyse the polarized emission at 1.4 GHz in a 3° x 3° area at high Galactic latitude (b ∼ -40°). The region, centred in (a = 5 h , δ = -49°), was observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) radio-interferometer, whose 3-30 arcmin angular sensitivity range allows the study of scales appropriate for cosmic microwave background polarization (CMBP) investigations. The angular behaviour of the diffuse emission is analysed through the E- and B-mode angular power spectra. These follow a power law C X l lβ X with slopes β E = -1.97 ± 0.08 and β B = -1.98 ± 0.07. The emission is found to be approximately a factor 25 fainter than in Galactic plane regions. The comparison of the power spectra with other surveys indicates that this area is intermediate between strong and negligible Faraday rotation effects. A similar conclusion can be reached by analysing both the frequency and Galactic latitude behaviours of the diffuse Galactic emission of the 408-1411 MHz Leiden survey data. We present an analysis of the Faraday rotation effects on the polarized power spectra and find that the observed power spectra can be enhanced by a transfer of power from large to small angular scales. The extrapolation of the spectra to 32 and 90 GHz of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) window suggests that Galactic synchrotron emission leaves the CMBP E-mode uncontaminated at 32 GHz. The level of the contamination at 90 GHz is expected to be more than 4 orders of magnitude below the CMBP spectrum. Extrapolating to the relevant angular scales, this region also appears adequate for investigation of the CMBP B-modes for models with tensor-to-scalar fluctuation power ratio T/S ≥ 0.01. We also identify polarized point sources in the field, providing a nine object list, which is complete down to the polarized flux limit of S p lim = 2 mJy.

THERMAL PLASMA IN THE GIANT LOBES OF THE RADIO GALAXY CENTAURUS A

We present a Faraday rotation measure (RM) study of the diffuse, polarized, radio emission from the giant lobes of the nearest radio galaxy, Centaurus A. After removal of the smooth Galactic foreground RM component, using an ensemble of background source RMs located outside the giant lobes, we are left with a residual RM signal associated with the giant lobes. We find that the most likely origin of this residual RM is from thermal material mixed throughout the relativistic lobe plasma. The alternative possibility of a thin-skin/boundary layer of magnetoionic material swept up by the expansion of the lobes is highly unlikely since it requires, at least, an order of magnitude enhancement of the swept-up gas over the expected intragroup density on these scales. Strong depolarization observed from 2.3 to 0.96 GHz also supports the presence of a significant amount of thermal gas within the lobes; although depolarization solely due to RM fluctuations in a foreground Faraday screen on scales smaller than the beam cannot be ruled out. Considering the internal Faraday rotation scenario, we find a thermal gas number density of ~10–4 cm–3, implying a total gas mass of ~1010 M ☉ within the lobes. The thermal pressure associated with this gas (with temperature kT ~ 0.5 keV, obtained from recent X-ray results) is approximately equal to the non-thermal pressure, indicating that over the volume of the lobes, there is approximate equipartition between the thermal gas, radio-emitting electrons, and magnetic field (and potentially any relativistic protons present).

The angular power spectra of polarized Galactic synchrotron

Abstract We derive the angular power spectra of intensity and polarization of Galactic synchrotron emission in the range 36≤l≲103 from the Parkes survey mapping the southern Galactic plane at 2.4 GHz. The polarization spectra of both electric and magnetic parity up to l≃103 are approximated very well by power laws with slope coefficients ≃1.4, quite different from the CMB spectra. We show that no problem should arise from Galactic synchrotron for measurements of CMB polarization in the cosmological window.

Polarization Angular Spectra of Galactic Synchrotron Emission on Arcminute Scales

We study the angular power spectra of the polarized component of the Galactic synchrotron emission in the 28 deg2 test region of the Southern Galactic Plane Survey at 1.4 GHz. These data were obtained by the Australia Telescope Compact Array and allow us to investigate angular power spectra down to arcminute scales. We find that, at this frequency, the polarization spectra for E- and B-modes seem to be affected by Faraday rotation produced in compact foreground screens. A different behavior is shown by the angular spectrum of the polarized intensity PI = (Q2 + U2)1/2. This is well fitted by a power law (CPIl ∝ l−αPI) with slope ~1.7, which agrees with higher frequency results and can probably be more confidently extrapolated to the cosmological window.

ANTISYMMETRY IN THE FARADAY ROTATION SKY CAUSED BY A NEARBY MAGNETIZED BUBBLE

Rotation measures (RMs) of pulsars and extragalactic point sources have been known to reveal large-scale antisymmetries in the Faraday rotation sky with respect to the Galactic plane and halo that have been interpreted as signatures of the mean magnetic field in the Galactic halo. We describe Faraday rotation measurements of the diffuse Galactic polarized radio emission over a large region in the northern Galactic hemisphere. Through application of RM synthesis we achieve sensitive Faraday rotation maps with high angular resolution, capable of revealing fine-scale structures of ~1° in the Faraday rotation sky. Our analysis suggests that the observed antisymmetry in the Faraday rotation sky at b>0° is dominated by the magnetic field around a local H I bubble at a distance of 100 pc, and not by the magnetic field of the Galactic halo. We derive physical properties of the magnetic field of this shell, which we find to be 20-34 μG strong. It is clear that the diffuse polarized radio emission contains important information about the local magneto-ionic medium, which cannot yet be derived from Faraday RMs of extragalactic sources or pulsars alone.