SKA studies of in situ synchrotron radiation from molecular clouds
Abstract
Observations of the properties of dense molecular clouds are critical in understanding the process of star-formation. One of the most important, but least understood, is the role of the magnetic fields. We discuss the possibility of using high-resolution, high-sensitivity radio observations with the SKA to measure for the first time the in-situ synchrotron radiation from these molecular clouds. If the cosmic-ray (CR) particles penetrate clouds as expected, then we can measure the B-field strength directly using radio data. So far, this signature has never been detected from the collapsing clouds themselves and would be a unique probe of the magnetic field. Dense cores are typically ∼ 0.05 pc in size, corresponding to ∼arcsec at ∼kpc distances, and flux density estimates are ∼ mJy at 1 GHz. The SKA should be able to readily detect directly, for the first time, along lines-of-sight that are not contaminated by thermal emission or complex foreground/background synchrotron emission. Polarised synchrotron may also be detectable providing additional information about the regular/turbulent fields.
Additional Information
Copyright owned by the author(s) under the term of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. CD acknowledges support from an ERC Starting (Consolidator) Grant (no. 307209).Attached Files
Published - AASKA14_102.pdf
Files
AASKA14_102.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 89489
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180910-131320837
Funding
- European Research Council (ERC)
- 307209
Dates
- Created
-
2018-09-11Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
Caltech Custom Metadata
- Series Name
- Proceedings of Science
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 215