Near-infrared polarimetry of a normal spiral galaxy viewed through the Taurus Molecular Cloud Complex

Abstract

Few normal galaxies have been probed using near-infrared polarimetry, even though it reveals magnetic fields in the cool interstellar medium better than either optical or radio polarimetry. Deep H-band (1.6um) linear imaging polarimetry toward Taurus serendipitously included the galaxy 2MASX J04412715+2433110 with adequate sensitivity and resolution to map polarization across nearly its full extent. The observations revealed the galaxy to be a steeply inclined (~75 deg) disk type with a diameter, encompassing 90% of the Petrosian flux, of 4.2 kpc at a distance of 53 Mpc. Because the sight line passes through the Taurus Molecular Cloud complex, the foreground polarization needed to be measured and removed. The foreground extinction Av of 2.00+/-0.10 mag and reddening E(H-K) of 0.125 +/- 0.009 mag were also assessed and removed, based on analysis of 2MASS, UKIDSS, Spitzer, and WISE photometry using the NICE, NICER, and RJCE methods. Corrected for the polarized foreground, the galaxy polarization values range from zero to 3%. The polarizations are dominated by a disk-parallel magnetic field geometry, especially to the northeast, while either a vertical field or single scattering of bulge light produces disk-normal polarizations to the southwest. The multi-kpc coherence of the magnetic field revealed by the infrared polarimetry is in close agreement with short wavelength radio synchrotron observations of edge-on galaxies, indicating that both cool and warm interstellar media of disk galaxies may be threaded by common magnetic fields.

To be published in The Astronomical Journal; 37 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables

References in corpus (9)

• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• The WFCAM Science Archive
• The UKIRT Wide Field Camera ZYJHK Photometric System: Calibration from 2MASS
• The Galactic Magnetic Field
• VLBA determination of the distance to nearby star-forming regions I. The distance to T Tauri with 0.4% accuracy
• Luminosity and stellar mass functions of disks and spheroids in the SDSS and the supermassive black hole mass function
• Galactic Dynamos and Galactic Winds
• The nature of late-type spiral galaxies: structural parameters, optical and near-infrared colour profiles, and dust extinction
• A Lack of Resolved Near-Infrared Polarization Across the Face of M51

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Distribution of velocity gradient orientations: Mapping magnetization with the Velocity Gradient Technique
• Probing the cold magnetized Universe with SPICA-POL (B-BOP)
• The Galactic Plane Infrared Polarization Survey (GPIPS): Data Release 4
• A complete disclosure of the hidden type-1 AGN in NGC 1068 thanks to 52 years of broadband polarimetric observation
• Using Red Clump Stars to Decompose the Galactic Magnetic Field with Distance
• Near-Infrared Polarimetry of the Edge-On Galaxy NGC891
• The Role of Magnetic Fields in the Formation of the Filamentary Infrared Dark Cloud G11.11-0.12
• POLICAN: A Near-infrared Imaging Polarimeter at the 2.1m OAGH Telescope