Can the observed E/B ratio for dust galactic foreground be explained by sub-Alfvenic turbulence?

Abstract

Recent Planck observations of dust polarization in the Galaxy have revealed that the power in $E$ mode is twice that in $B$ mode. Caldwell et. al. have formulated a theoretical model in the context of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence and found it problematic to account for this result. In particular, they concluded that there is a very narrow range of theoretical parameters that could account for the observation. This poses a problem of whether the accepted description of MHD turbulence can apply to the interstellar medium. We revisit the problem and demonstrate that MHD turbulence corresponding to the high galactic latitudes range of Alfvén Mach numbers, i.e. $M_A\lesssim 0.5$, can successfully explain the available results for the $E$ to $B$ mode ratio.

Accepted to MNRAS Letters. 5 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (18)

• Theory of Star Formation
• The Anisotropy of MHD Alfvénic Turbulence
• Simulations of Incompressible MHD Turbulence
• Compressible Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: mode coupling, scaling relations, anisotropy, new regime and astrophysical implications
• Magnetic Fields in Spiral Galaxies
• Tracing Magnetic Fields with Aligned Grains
• Compressible Sub-Alfvenic MHD turbulence in Low-beta Plasmas
• Extending Big Power Law in the Sky with Turbulence Spectra from WHAM data
• Planck intermediate results. XXX. The angular power spectrum of polarized dust emission at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes
• Density Studies of MHD Interstellar Turbulence: Statistical Moments, Correlations and Bispectrum
• Velocity centroids as tracers of the turbulent velocity statistics
• Statistical Description of Synchrotron Intensity Fluctuations: Studies of Astrophysical Magnetic Turbulence
• Tsallis statistics as a tool for studying interstellar turbulence
• Damping of Alfven waves by Turbulence and its Consequences: from Cosmic-Rays Streaming to Launching Winds
• Grain Dynamics In Magnetized Interstellar Gas
• Measuring the Alfvenic Nature of the Interstellar Medium: Velocity Anisotropy Revisited
• Velocity Anisotropy as a Diagnostic of the Magnetization of the Interstellar Medium and Molecular clouds
• Dust polarization and ISM turbulence

Cited by in corpus (23)

• Planck 2018 results. XI. Polarized dust foregrounds
• The Origin of Parity Violation in Polarized Dust Emission and Implications for Cosmic Birefringence
• Dust-polarization maps for local interstellar turbulence
• Classification of Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations using Wavelet Scattering Transforms
• Dust Polarization Maps from TIGRESS: E/B power asymmetry and TE correlation
• The Power Spectra of Polarized, Dusty Filaments
• Statistical properties of galactic CMB foregrounds: dust and synchrotron
• Magnetic Misalignment of Interstellar Dust Filaments
• Is there a left-handed magnetic field in the solar neighborhood? Exploring helical magnetic fields in the interstellar medium through dust polarization power spectra
• Dust polarization modeling at large-scale over the Northern Galactic cap using EBHIS and Planck data
• E and B polarizations from inhomogeneous and solar surface turbulence
• hammurabi X: Simulating Galactic Synchrotron Emission with Random Magnetic Fields
• The turbulent stress spectrum in the inertial and subinertial ranges
• The link between E-B polarization modes and gas column density from interstellar dust emission
• Ambipolar diffusion in large Prandtl number turbulence
• Analysis of Polarized Dust Emission Using Data from the First Flight of SPIDER
• Fingerprint of Galactic Loop I on polarized microwave foregrounds
• Cosmoglobe DR1. III. First full-sky model of polarized synchrotron emission from all WMAP and Planck LFI data
• The effect of cosmic variance on the characteristics of dust polarization power spectra
• Hemispheric handedness in the Galactic synchrotron polarization foreground
• Statistical signatures of interstellar turbulence in dust polarization maps
• Obtaining strength of magnetic field from E and B modes of dust polarization
• JWST imaging of the Pleiades: anisotropy of turbulence in the cold neutral medium