Constraints on the Galactic Magnetic Field from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey

Kyle Rae, Jo-Anne Brown

Published 2010-12-14Version 1

The Galactic magnetic field is important in the dynamics of our Galaxy. It is believed to play a role in star formation and influence the structure of the Galaxy. In order to understand how the Galactic magnetic field originally formed or how it is evolving, we must first determine its present topology. To this end, we have used observations from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS) to calculate the highest source density of rotation measures (RM) to date in the disk of the Galaxy. Using these data, we estimate the Galactic longitude of the RM null point in the outer Galaxy (where the RMs of extragalactic sources are observed to pass through zero, on average, with increasing Galactic longitude). We have also examined the RM scale height using the CGPS latitude extension. The values of these parameters offer critical constraints for modeling the large-scale magnetic field in the Galactic disk.