Diagnosis of 3D magnetic field and modes composition in MHD turbulence with Y-parameter

Abstract

Magnetic fields are crucial in numerous astrophysical processes within the interstellar medium. However, the detailed determination of magnetic field geometry is notoriously challenging. Based on the modern magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence theory, we introduce a novel statistical technique, the "Y-parameter", to decipher the magnetic field inclination in the ISM and identify dominant turbulence modes. The Y-parameter, calculated as the ratio of anisotropies of different Stokes parameter combinations, displays contrasting trends with the mean-field inclination angle in Alfvénic and compressible turbulence modes. A Y-parameter value around $1.5\pm 0.5$ provide a statistical boundary to determine the dominant MHD turbulence modes. We have discovered specific correlations between the Y-parameter value and the inclination angle that unveil the dominant turbulence mode. This methodology, when applied to future radio polarisation surveys such as LOFAR and SKA, promises to significantly enhance our knowledge of 3D magnetic field in the ISM and improve our understanding of interstellar turbulence.

13 pages, 10 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (29)

• Theory of Star Formation
• The Athena++ Adaptive Mesh Refinement Framework: Design and Magnetohydrodynamic Solvers
• Extended gamma-ray sources around pulsars constrain the origin of the positron flux at Earth
• Radiative torques: Analytical Model and Basic Properties
• Simulations of nonhelical hydromagnetic turbulence
• Cosmic Ray Propagation: Nonlinear Diffusion Parallel and Perpendicular to Mean Magnetic Field
• A Compendium of Distances to Molecular Clouds in the Star Formation Handbook
• 3D Turbulent Reconnection: Theory, Tests and Astrophysical Implications
• Magnetically Aligned Velocity Anisotropy in the Taurus Molecular Cloud
• Velocity centroids as tracers of the turbulent velocity statistics
• High-accuracy estimation of magnetic field strength in the interstellar medium from dust polarization
• Anisotropy of third-order structure functions in MHD turbulence
• The Faraday Rotation Measure Grid of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: Data Release 2
• Polarization of absorption lines as a diagnostics of circumstellar, interstellar and intergalactic magnetic fields: Fine structure atoms
• Diffuse polarized emission in the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey
• Study of velocity centroids based on the theory of fluctuations in position-position-velocity space
• Magnetic field properties in star formation: a review of their analysis methods and interpretation
• Particle Acceleration by Fast Modes in Solar Flares
• Magnetic field strength from turbulence theory (I): Using differential measure approach (DMA)
• First-principles Fermi acceleration in magnetized turbulence
• Atomic alignment and Diagnostics of Magnetic Fields in Diffuse Media
• Technique for separating velocity and density contributions in spectroscopic data and its application to studying turbulence and magnetic fields
• Polarization from aligned atoms as a diagnostics of circumstellar, AGN and interstellar magnetic fields: II. Atoms with Hyperfine Structure
• Rotation measure structure functions with higher-order stencils as a probe of small-scale magnetic fluctuations and its application to the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds
• Turbulent diffusion of streaming cosmic rays in compressible, partially ionised plasma
• A New Mechanism for Polarizing Light from Obscured Stars
• Multi-spacecraft Analysis of the Properties of Magnetohydrodynamic Fluctuations in Sub-Alfvénic Solar Wind Turbulence at 1 AU
• Anomalous compressible mode generation by global frame projections of pure Alfven mode
• Magnetic field measurement from the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method employed with Atomic Alignment

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Small-amplitude Compressible Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence Modulated by Collisionless Damping in Earth's Magnetosheath: Observation Matches Theory
• Neutral hydrogen filaments in interstellar media: Are they physical?
• Diagnostics of magnetohydrodynamic modes in the ISM through synchrotron polarization statistics
• Diagnosing Interstellar Magnetic Turbulence with TeV Pulsar Halos