SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-InfraRed Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration (FIREPLACE) Survey I: General Results from the Pilot Program

Abstract

We present the first data release (DR1) of the Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration (FIREPLACE) survey. The survey was taken using the 214-micron band of the HAWC+ instrument with the SOFIA telescope (19.6${}^{\prime }$ resolution; 0.7 pc). In this first data release we present dust polarization observations covering a ~0.5$°$ region of the Galactic Center's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), approximately centered on the Sgr B2 complex. We detect ~25,000 Nyquist-sampled polarization pseudovectors, after applying the standard SOFIA cuts for minimum signal-to-noise in fractional polarization and total intensity of 3 and 200, respectively. Analysis of the magnetic field orientation suggests a bimodal distribution in the field direction. This bimodal distribution shows enhancements in the distribution of field directions for orientations parallel and perpendicular to the Galactic plane, which is suggestive of a CMZ magnetic field configuration with polodial and torodial components. Furthermore, a detailed analysis of individual clouds included in our survey (i.e., Sgr B2, Sgr B2-NW, Sgr B2-Halo, Sgr B1, and Clouds-E/F) shows these clouds have fractional polarization values of 1--10% at 214-micron, with most of the emission having values $<$5%. A few of these clouds (i.e., Sgr B2, Clouds-E/F) show relatively low fractional polarization values toward the cores of the cloud, with higher fractional polarization values toward the less dense periphery. We also observe higher fractional polarization towards compact HII regions which could indicate an enhancement in the grain alignment in the dust surrounding these sources.

Accepted for publication in ApJ

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• SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large-Area CMZ Exploration (FIREPLACE) Survey III: Full Survey Data Set
• The JWST-NIRCam View of Sagittarius C. II. Evidence for Magnetically Dominated HII Regions in the CMZ
• Constraints on Axion-like Particles from the gamma-ray observation of the Galactic Center
• SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration Survey. V. The Magnetic Field Strength and Morphology in the Sagittarius C Complex
• Chemical templates of the Central Molecular Zone. Shock and protostellar object signatures under Galactic Center conditions
• The Dust Polarisation and Magnetic Field Structure in the Centre of NGC253 with ALMA
• The SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey filamentary source catalogue
• The Complex Magnetic Field of the Extreme Galactic Center: PRIMA Science Potential
• 3D CMZ V: A new orbital model of our Galaxy's Center, informed by data across the electromagnetic spectrum