The Origin of Magnetic Fields in Galaxies: Observational Tests with the Square Kilometre Array

Abstract

The all-sky survey of Faraday rotation, a Key Science Project of the planned Square Kilometre Array, will accumulate tens of millions of rotation measure measurements toward background radio sources and will provide a unique database for characterizing the overall magnetic geometry of magnetic fields in galaxies and in the intergalactic medium. Deep imaging of the polarized synchrotron emission from a large number of nearby galaxies, combined with Faraday rotation data, will allow us to test the primordial, flow and dynamo models for field origin and amplification. The SKA will find the first fields in young galaxies and determine the timescale for building up small-scale turbulent and large-scale coherent fields. The spectrum of dynamo modes, if existing, will be resolved. The direction of the present-day coherent field keeps memory of the direction of the seed field which can be used for mapping the structure of the seed field before galaxy formation.

4 pages, 3 figures. Conference Proceedings to be published in "The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Magnetism", eds. R. Beck, G. Brunetti, L. Feretti, and B. Gaensler (Astronomische Nachrichten); Typos corrected 03/01/2006; References added in Sect. 4 & typos corrected 07/04/2006