The intracluster magnetic field power spectrum in Abell 2382

TL;DR

This study constrains the magnetic field strength and structure in galaxy cluster Abell 2382 by analyzing polarization data and comparing it with simulated models, revealing a Kolmogorov power spectrum and a central magnetic field of about 3 μG.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed constraints on the magnetic field power spectrum and strength in Abell 2382 using combined observations and simulations.

Findings

Magnetic field follows a Kolmogorov power spectrum with index 11/3.

Outer scale of magnetic fluctuations is approximately 35 kpc.

Average magnetic field strength at cluster center is about 3 μG.

Abstract

The goal of this work is to put constraints on the strength and structure of the magnetic field in the cluster of galaxies A2382. We investigate the relationship between magnetic field and Faraday rotation effects in the cluster, using numerical simulations as a reference for the observed polarization properties. For this purpose we present Very Large Array observations at 20 cm and 6 cm of two polarized radio sources embedded in A2382, and we obtained detailed rotation measure images for both of them. We simulated random three-dimensional magnetic field models with different power spectra and thus produced synthetic rotation measure images. By comparing our simulations with the observed polarization properties of the radio sources, we can determine the strength and the power spectrum of intra-cluster magnetic field fluctuations that best reproduce the observations. The data are consistent with a power law magnetic field power spectrum with the Kolmogorov index $n=11/3$, while the outer scale of the magnetic field fluctuations is of the order of 35 kpc. The average magnetic field strength at the cluster center is about 3 $\mu$G and decreases in the external region as the square root of the electron gas density. The average magnetic field strength in the central 1 Mpc$^{3}$ is about 1 $\mu$G.