Infrared and optical polarimetry around the low-mass star-forming region NGC 1333 IRAS 4A

Abstract

We performed J- and R-band linear polarimetry with the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos and with the 1.6 m telescope at the Observatório do Pico dos Dias, respectively, to derive the magnetic field geometry of the diffuse molecular cloud surrounding the embedded protostellar system NGC 1333 IRAS 4A. We obtained interstellar polarization data for about two dozen stars. The distribution of polarization position angles has low dispersion and suggests the existence of an ordered magnetic field component at physical scales larger than the protostar. Some of the observed stars present intrinsic polarization and evidence of being young stellar objects. The estimated mean orientation of the interstellar magnetic field as derived from these data is almost perpendicular to the main direction of the magnetic field associated with the dense molecular envelope around IRAS 4A. Since the distribution of the CO emission in NGC 1333 indicates that the diffuse molecular gas has a multi-layered structure, we suggest that the observed polarization position angles are caused by the superposed projection along the line of sight of different magnetic field components.

37 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in AJ

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Cited by in corpus (15)

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• Time-resolved optical/near-IR polarimetry of V404 Cyg during its 2015 outburst
• Large-scale magnetic fields in Bok globules
• Near-infrared Linear Polarization of Ultracool Dwarfs
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• Connecting the Scales: Large Area High-resolution Ammonia Mapping of NGC 1333
• Synchrotron emission in molecular cloud cores: the SKA view
• Polarized synchrotron emission in quiescent black hole X-ray transients
• A Compact Jet at the Infrared Heart of the Prototypical Low-Luminosity AGN in NGC 1052
• Optical and near-infrared linear polarization of low and intermediate-gravity ultra-cool dwarfs
• Two-component Magnetic Field along the Line of Sight to the Perseus Molecular Cloud: Contribution of the Foreground Taurus Molecular Cloud
• The long-term optical evolution of the black hole candidate MAXI J1659-152
• Magnetic fields in Bok globules: Multi-wavelength polarimetry as tracer across large spatial scales