Abstract
We present a project to constrain the properties of magnetic fields in Cosmic Web filaments. We first perform rotation measure (RM) synthesis on 24 S-band Karl G Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of moderate-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN). These observations are combined with an existing catalog of Cosmic Web filaments in order to determine the number of filaments a given sight-line passes near or through. By tracking how observables such as rotation measure and polarization fraction change as a function of the number of intervening cosmic web filaments, we take the first steps towards providing observational constraints on the magnetic field strength within these structures. We find that the dispersion in RM increases as the distance between a line of sight and the filament closest to that line of sight decreases, suggesting that we are detecting a signal from magnetic fields within these structures.
Recommended Citation
Mizener, Andrew L.
(2020)
"Probing the Magnetic Fields in Cosmic Web Filaments,"
Macalester Journal of Physics and Astronomy: Vol. 8:
Iss.
1, Article 12.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/mjpa/vol8/iss1/12