Interstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar Medium
Magnetic fields permeate the entire Galaxy and are essential to, for example, the regulation of several stages of the star formation process and cosmic-ray transportation. Unraveling their properties, such as intensity and topology, is an observational challenge that requires combining different and...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | The Astronomical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aca8fd |
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| author | M. J. F. Versteeg A. M. Magalhães M. Haverkorn Y. Angarita C. V. Rodrigues R. Santos-Lima Koji S. Kawabata |
| author_facet | M. J. F. Versteeg A. M. Magalhães M. Haverkorn Y. Angarita C. V. Rodrigues R. Santos-Lima Koji S. Kawabata |
| author_sort | M. J. F. Versteeg |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Magnetic fields permeate the entire Galaxy and are essential to, for example, the regulation of several stages of the star formation process and cosmic-ray transportation. Unraveling their properties, such as intensity and topology, is an observational challenge that requires combining different and complementary techniques. The polarization of starlight due to the absorption by field-aligned nonspherical dust grains provides a unique source of information about the interstellar magnetic field in the optical band. This work introduces a first analysis of a new catalog of optical observations of linearly polarized starlight in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), the Interstellar Polarization Survey–General ISM (IPS-GI). We used data from the IPS-GI, focusing on 38 fields sampling lines of sight in the diffuse medium. The fields are about 0.°3 × 0.°3 in size, and each of them contains ∼1000 stars, on average. The IPS-GI catalog has polarimetric measurements of over 40,000 stars, over 18,000 of which have P / σ _P > 5. We added distances and other parameters from auxiliary catalogs to over 36,000 of these stars. We analyzed parameter distributions and correlations between parameters of a high-quality subsample of 10,516 stars (i.e., ∼275 stars per field). As expected, the degree of polarization tends to increase with the extinction, producing higher values of polarization at greater distances or lower absolute Galactic latitudes. Furthermore, we find evidence for a large-scale ordered Galactic magnetic field. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:45:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-89c5234b5db44731ae013681b89a43e7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1538-3881 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T04:45:08Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astronomical Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-89c5234b5db44731ae013681b89a43e72023-09-03T09:29:30ZengIOP PublishingThe Astronomical Journal1538-38812023-01-0116538710.3847/1538-3881/aca8fdInterstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar MediumM. J. F. Versteeg0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0400-8846A. M. Magalhães1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1580-0583M. Haverkorn2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5288-312XY. Angarita3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5016-5645C. V. Rodrigues4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9459-043XR. Santos-Lima5https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6880-4468Koji S. Kawabata6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6099-9539Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University , PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepto. de Astronomia, IAG, Universidade de São Paulo , BrazilDepartment of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University , PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDepartment of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University , PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The NetherlandsDivisão de Astrofísica, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE/MCTI) , Av. dos Astronautas, 1758, São José dos Campos, SP, BrazilDepto. de Astronomia, IAG, Universidade de São Paulo , BrazilHiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, 739-8526, JapanMagnetic fields permeate the entire Galaxy and are essential to, for example, the regulation of several stages of the star formation process and cosmic-ray transportation. Unraveling their properties, such as intensity and topology, is an observational challenge that requires combining different and complementary techniques. The polarization of starlight due to the absorption by field-aligned nonspherical dust grains provides a unique source of information about the interstellar magnetic field in the optical band. This work introduces a first analysis of a new catalog of optical observations of linearly polarized starlight in the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), the Interstellar Polarization Survey–General ISM (IPS-GI). We used data from the IPS-GI, focusing on 38 fields sampling lines of sight in the diffuse medium. The fields are about 0.°3 × 0.°3 in size, and each of them contains ∼1000 stars, on average. The IPS-GI catalog has polarimetric measurements of over 40,000 stars, over 18,000 of which have P / σ _P > 5. We added distances and other parameters from auxiliary catalogs to over 36,000 of these stars. We analyzed parameter distributions and correlations between parameters of a high-quality subsample of 10,516 stars (i.e., ∼275 stars per field). As expected, the degree of polarization tends to increase with the extinction, producing higher values of polarization at greater distances or lower absolute Galactic latitudes. Furthermore, we find evidence for a large-scale ordered Galactic magnetic field.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aca8fdOptical astronomyStarlight polarizationInterstellar mediumPolarimetryInterstellar magnetic fields |
| spellingShingle | M. J. F. Versteeg A. M. Magalhães M. Haverkorn Y. Angarita C. V. Rodrigues R. Santos-Lima Koji S. Kawabata Interstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar Medium The Astronomical Journal Optical astronomy Starlight polarization Interstellar medium Polarimetry Interstellar magnetic fields |
| title | Interstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar Medium |
| title_full | Interstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar Medium |
| title_fullStr | Interstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar Medium |
| title_full_unstemmed | Interstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar Medium |
| title_short | Interstellar Polarization Survey. II. General Interstellar Medium |
| title_sort | interstellar polarization survey ii general interstellar medium |
| topic | Optical astronomy Starlight polarization Interstellar medium Polarimetry Interstellar magnetic fields |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/aca8fd |
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