Highly ordered magnetic fields in the tail of the jellyfish galaxy JO206

Abstract

Jellyfish galaxies have long tails of gas that is stripped from the disc by ram pressure due to the motion of galaxies in the intracluster medium in galaxy clusters. We present the first measurement of the magnetic field strength and orientation within the disc and the (90kpc-long) $\mathrm{H}\alpha$-emitting tail of the jellyfish galaxy JO206. The tail has a large-scale magnetic field ($>4.1\mu$G), a steep radio spectral index ($\alpha \sim -2.0$), indicating an aging of the electrons propagating away from the star-forming regions, and extremely high fractional polarisation ($>50$%), indicating low turbulent motions. The magnetic field vectors are aligned with (parallel to) the direction of the ionised-gas tail and stripping direction. High-resolution simulations of a large, cold gas cloud that is exposed to a hot, magnetised turbulent wind show that the high fractional polarisation and the ordered magnetic field can be explained by accretion of draped magnetised plasma from the hot wind that condenses onto the external layers of the tail, where it is adiabatically compressed and sheared. The ordered magnetic field, preventing heat and momentum exchange, may be a key factor in allowing in-situ star formation in the tail.

accepted for publication in Nature Astronomy, Sharedlt: https://rdcu.be/b9c0L (free read only)

References in corpus (15)

• Revised equipartition & minimum energy formula for magnetic field strength estimates from radio synchrotron observations
• BUDHIES II: A phase-space view of HI gas stripping and star-formation quenching in cluster galaxies
• Draping of Cluster Magnetic Fields over Bullets and Bubbles -- Morphology and Dynamic Effects
• Magnetized Gas Clouds can Survive Acceleration by a Hot Wind
• The Launching of Cold Clouds by Galaxy Outflows I: Hydrodynamic Interactions with Radiative Cooling
• MUSE sneaks a peek at extreme ram-pressure stripping events. I. A kinematic study of the archetypal galaxy ESO137-001
• Ram pressure feeding super-massive black holes
• Hydrodynamical Coupling of Mass and Momentum in Multiphase Galactic Winds
• GASP XXI. Star formation rates in the tails of galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping
• GASP XVII. HI imaging of the jellyfish galaxy JO206: gas stripping and enhanced star formation
• The characteristic polarized radio continuum distribution of cluster spiral galaxies
• The high molecular gas content, and the efficient conversion of neutral into molecular gas, in jellyfish galaxies
• The Ties that Bind? Galactic Magnetic Fields and Ram Pressure Stripping
• Bubble-Wrap for Bullets: The Stability Imparted By A Thin Magnetic Layer
• M82 - A radio continuum and polarisation study II. Polarisation and rotation measures

Cited by in corpus (39)

• Ram Pressure Stripping in High-Density Environments
• The Dawes Review 9: The role of cold gas stripping on the star formation quenching of satellite galaxies
• LoTSS jellyfish galaxies: I. Radio tails in low redshift clusters
• The Survival of Multiphase Dusty Clouds in Hot Winds
• Radio footprints of a minor merger in the Shapley Supercluster: From supercluster down to galactic scales
• Intracluster magnetic filaments and an encounter with a radio jet
• A MeerKAT view of pre-processing in the Fornax A group
• GASP XXXIV: Unfolding the thermal side of ram pressure stripping in the jellyfish galaxy JO201
• GASP XXXVIII: The LOFAR-MeerKAT-VLA view on the non-thermal side of a jellyfish galaxy
• Self-regulated AGN feedback of light jets in cool-core galaxy clusters
• A New Method to Constrain the Appearance and Disappearance of Observed Jellyfish Galaxy Tails
• Two striking head-tail galaxies in the galaxy cluster IIZW108: insights into transition to turbulence, magnetic fields and particle re-acceleration
• GASP XXXV: Characteristics of the diffuse ionised gas in gas-stripped galaxies
• Radio continuum tails in ram pressure-stripped spiral galaxies: experimenting with a semi-empirical model in Abell 2255
• Walk on the Low Side: LOFAR explores the low-frequency radio emission of GASP jellyfish galaxies
• UV and H$\alpha$ HST observations of 6 GASP jellyfish galaxies
• Cold and Hot gas distribution around the Milky-Way-M31 system in the HESTIA simulations
• An H$\alpha$/X-ray orphan cloud as a signpost of the intracluster medium clumping
• It's a Breeze: The Circumgalactic Medium of a Dwarf Galaxy is Easy to Strip
• The MUSE view of ram pressure stripped galaxies in clusters: the GASP sample
• 3D modeling of the molecular gas kinematics in optically-selected jellyfish galaxies
• Stress-Testing Cosmic Ray Physics: The Impact of Cosmic Rays on the Surviving Disk of Ram Pressure Stripped Galaxies
• The magnetised and thermally unstable tails of jellyfish galaxies
• Unveiling the interplay between the GASP jellyfish galaxy JO194 and its environment with Chandra
• The impact of magnetic fields on cosmological galaxy mergers -- II. Modified angular momentum transport and feedback
• Role of magnetic fields in ram pressure stripped galaxies
• GASP XXXVII: The Most Extreme Jellyfish Galaxies Compared to Other Disk Galaxies in Clusters, an HI Study
• FGC 1287 and its enigmatic 250 kpc long HI tail in the outskirts of Abell 1367
• GASP XXXIX: MeerKAT hunts Jellyfish in A2626
• Spatially resolved self-consistent spectral modelling of jellyfish galaxies from MUSE with FADO: trends with mass and stripping intensity
• Comparing the interstellar and circumgalactic origin of gas in the tails of jellyfish galaxies
• A 100 kpc Ram Pressure Tail Trailing the Group Galaxy NGC 2276
• Saturation of the compression of two interacting magnetic flux tubes evidenced in the laboratory
• Identification of ram pressure stripping features in galaxies using citizen science
• The role of magnetic fields in ram pressure stripping of satellite galaxies in the circumgalactic medium around massive galaxies
• The Sharpest Ultraviolet view of the star formation in an extreme environment of the nearest Jellyfish Galaxy IC 3418
• Bayesian approach to equipartition estimation of magnetic field strength
• The supersonic nature of jellyfish galaxies
• RXTE Observation of the Non-thermal Emission from the Early Stage Merger in Abell 1750