New knowledge of the Galactic magnetic fields

Abstract

The magnetic fields of our Milky Way galaxy are the main agent for cosmic rays to transport. In the last decade, much new knowledge has been gained from measurements of the Galactic magnetic fields. In the Galactic disk, from the RMs of a large number of newly discovered pulsars, the large-scale magnetic fields along the spiral arms have been delineated in a much larger region than ever before, with alternating directions in the arm and interarm regions. The toroidal fields in the Galactic halo were revealed to have opposite directions below and above the Galactic plane, which is an indication of an A0 mode dynamo operating in the halo. The strength of large-scale fields obtained from pulsar RM data has been found to increase exponentially towards the Galactic center. Compared to the steep Kolmogorov spectrum of magnetic energy at small scales, the large-scale magnetic fields show a shallow broken spatial magnetic energy spectrum.

8 pages, 4 figures. Invited Talk at XIV International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions, WeiHai, China 15-22 Aug 2006

References in corpus (4)

• Pulsar rotation measures and the large-scale structure of Galactic magnetic field
• The spatial energy spectrum of magnetic fields in our Galaxy
• Enhanced small-scale Faraday rotation in the Galactic spiral arms
• Extragalactic sources towards the central region of the Galaxy

Cited by in corpus (25)

• The Astrophysics of Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays
• Galactic synchrotron emission with cosmic ray propagation models
• The enigmatic nature of the circumstellar envelope and bow shock surrounding Betelgeuse as revealed by Herschel. I. Evidence of clumps, multiple arcs, and a linear bar-like structure
• Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Ray Nuclei from Extragalactic Pulsars and the effect of their Galactic counterparts
• The influence of magnetic fields on the thermodynamics of primordial star formation
• On the Possible Association of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays with Nearby Active Galaxies
• Ultrahigh Energy Nuclei in the Turbulent Galactic Magnetic Field
• Ultrahigh Energy Nuclei in the Galactic Magnetic Field
• Radiative transfer with POLARIS. II.: Modeling of synthetic Galactic synchrotron observations
• Strangelets and the TeV-PeV cosmic-ray anisotropies
• Do Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays Come from Active Galactic Nuclei and Fermi $\gamma$-ray Sources?
• Constraining the regular Galactic Magnetic Field with the 5-year WMAP polarization measurements at 22 GHz
• Super-Knee Cosmic Rays from Galactic Neutron Star Merger Remnants
• The Origin of Magnetic Fields in Galaxies
• Suppression of small baryonic structures due to a primordial magnetic field
• Testing Galactic Magnetic Field Models using Near-Infrared Polarimetry
• Search for single sources of ultra high energy cosmic rays on the sky
• Method to Look for Imprints of Ultrahigh Energy Nuclei Sources
• Pulsar scintillation patterns and strangelets
• Anisotropy in Cosmic rays from internal transitions in neutron stars
• Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays Detected by Auger and AGASA:Corrections for Galactic Magnetic Field Deflections, Source Populations, and Arguments for Multiple-Components
• Random Primordial Magnetic Fields and the Gas Content of Dark Matter Halos
• Analysis of Fermi-LAT observations, UHECRs and neutrinos from the radio galaxy Centaurus B
• Search for ultra high energy cosmic ray sources. FRI radio galaxy Centaurus A
• Pulsars as Fantastic Objects and Probes