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Mesoscale Magnetic Structures in Spiral Galaxies

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Cosmic Magnetic Fields

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Physics ((LNP,volume 664))

Abstract

Virtually all spiral galaxies host magnetic fields ordered at scales comparable to the galactic size (Beck et al., 1996; Beck, 2000, 2001). Observations of polarized radio emission at improved resolution and sensitivity have revealed details of the global magnetic structures that can shed new light on the problem of their origin. Reversals of the regular magnetic field along radius and/or azimuth and magnetic arms are such features, whose scale exceeds significantly the correlation scale of interstellar turbulence but remains smaller than the overall galactic dimension. Despite a few decades of debate, there remains doubt as to what features of the observed field could have been inherited from the pre-galactic past, and which have been formed and maintained more recently in a relatively mature galaxy. In what follows, we briefly review the current understanding of the origin of the mesoscale magnetic structures and their implications for the origin of galactic magnetic fields.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, U.K.

    Anvar Shukurov

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  1. Anvar Shukurov
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Richard Wielebinski Rainer Beck

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Shukurov, A. Mesoscale Magnetic Structures in Spiral Galaxies. In: Wielebinski, R., Beck, R. (eds) Cosmic Magnetic Fields. Lecture Notes in Physics, vol 664. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3540313966_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3540313966_6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-24175-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31396-0

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