The Large-Scale Magnetic Field Structure of Our Galaxy: Efficiently Deduced from Pulsar Rotation Measures

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dc.creatorHan, J. L.
dc.date2004-02-08
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:12:09Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:12:09Z
dc.descriptionIn this review, I will first introduce possible methods to probe the large-scale magnetic fields in our Galaxy and discuss their limitations. The magnetic fields in the Galactic halo, mainly revealed by the sky distribution of rotation measures of extragalactic radio sources, probably have a global structure of a twisted dipole field. The large-scale field structure in the Galactic disk has been most efficiently deduced from pulsar rotation measures (RMs). There has been a lot of progress since the 1980s when the magnetic field in the local area of our Galaxy was first traced by a very small sample of local pulsars. Now we have pulsars distributed in about one third of the whole Galactic disk of the interstellar medium, which shows that the large-scale magnetic fields go along the spiral arms and that the field directions reverse from arm to arm. The RMs of newly discovered pulsars in the very inner Galaxy have been used to show the coherent magnetic field in the Norma arm. The magnetic fields in the Galactic disk most probably have a bisymmetric spiral structure.
dc.description10 pages, 4 figures. Invited Review in "The Magnetized Interstellar Medium", 8-12 September 2003, Antalya, Turkey
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402170
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0402170
dc.identifierin "The Magnetized Interstellar Medium", eds. B. Uyaniker, W. Reich & R. Wielebinski, Copernicus GmbH, Katlenburg-Lindau, 2004, p.3
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/7361
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleThe Large-Scale Magnetic Field Structure of Our Galaxy: Efficiently Deduced from Pulsar Rotation Measures
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