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The Magnetic Field of the Milky Way

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

Virginia Trimble
Virginia Trimble*
Affiliation:
Physics Department University of California Irvine CA 92717 USA Astronomy Program University of Maryland College Park MD 20742

Abstract

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Since its discovery 40 years ago as a confiner of cosmic rays and an aligner of interstellar dust grains, the Galactic magnetic field has been studied through emission and polarization of synchrotron radiation, Faraday rotation, Zeeman splitting, and effects on gas flows and morphology. The local field has a coherent, few microgauss, component roughly along the local spiral arm and a comparable chaotic component. Field direction in the plane is reversed one or more times both inside and outside the solar circle. Loops and spurs extend outside the plane and may merge with a general dipole, which is most conspicuous near the Galactic center. There may be a separate thick disc magneto-ionic component. Comparison with other galaxies, especially grand design vs. flocculent spirals should eventually prove fruitful. Parameters are not currently well enough known to rule out dipole or primordial origin.

Type
2. The Magnetic Field Structure of the Milky Way: The Meeting of Observation and Theory
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 140: Galactic and Intergalactic Magnetic Fields , 1990 , pp. 29 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1990 

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