Galaxy clusters are unique laboratories to investigate turbulent fluid motions and large scale magnetic fields. Synchrotron radio halos at the center of merging galaxy clusters provide the most spectacular and direct evidence of the presence of relativistic particles and magnetic fields associated with the intracluster medium. The study of polarized emission from radio halos is extremely important to constrain the properties of intracluster magnetic fields and the physics of the acceleration and transport of the relativistic particles. However, detecting this polarized signal is a very hard task with the current radio facilities.We use cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to predict the expected polarized surface brightness of radio halos at 1.4 GHz. We compare these expectations with the sensitivity and the resolution reachable with the SKA1. This allows us to evaluate the potential for studying intracluster magnetic fields in the surveys planned for SKA1.
Cluster magnetic fields through the study of polarized radio halos in the SKA era / Govoni, F.; Murgia, M.; Xu, H.; Li, H.; Norman, M.; Feretti, L.; Giovannini, G.; Vacca, V.; Bernardi, G.; Bonafede, A.; Brunetti, G.; Carretti, E.; Colafrancesco, S.; Donnert, J.; Ferrari, C.; Gitti, M.; Iapichino, L.; Johnston-Hollitt, M.; Pizzo, R.; Rudnick, L.. - In: POS PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENCE. - ISSN 1824-8039. - ELETTRONICO. - 9-13-June-2014:(2015), pp. 105.1-105.10.
Cluster magnetic fields through the study of polarized radio halos in the SKA era
GIOVANNINI, GABRIELE;GITTI, MYRIAM;
2015
Abstract
Galaxy clusters are unique laboratories to investigate turbulent fluid motions and large scale magnetic fields. Synchrotron radio halos at the center of merging galaxy clusters provide the most spectacular and direct evidence of the presence of relativistic particles and magnetic fields associated with the intracluster medium. The study of polarized emission from radio halos is extremely important to constrain the properties of intracluster magnetic fields and the physics of the acceleration and transport of the relativistic particles. However, detecting this polarized signal is a very hard task with the current radio facilities.We use cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to predict the expected polarized surface brightness of radio halos at 1.4 GHz. We compare these expectations with the sensitivity and the resolution reachable with the SKA1. This allows us to evaluate the potential for studying intracluster magnetic fields in the surveys planned for SKA1.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
