The Magnetic Field of the Milky Way

The Magnetic Field of the Milky Way
Glennys Farrar, New York University
Date and time: Wed, Apr 12, 2017 - 4:00pm
Refreshments at 3:45pm
Location: Hasbrouck 124
Category: Departmental Colloquium
Abstract:
It has recently been discovered — to the surprise of many — that the Milky Way has a large scale, coherent “poloidal” magnetic field which extends far into the Galactic halo, in addition to the long-known fields in and between the spiral arms. I will describe how, by combining WMAP or Planck measurements with Faraday Rotation Measures of distant quasars, it was possible to make a quantitative model of the large scale Galactic field. The geometry of the field is challenging to explain with a Galactic dynamo, possibly pointing to a primordial origin.