The Use of Faraday Rotation Sign Maps as a Diagnostic for Helical Jet Magnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper uses Faraday Rotation sign maps from VLBA radio observations to diagnose the presence of helical magnetic fields in AGN jets, revealing bilateral RM patterns indicative of toroidal or helical magnetic structures.

Contribution

It introduces a method of mapping the sign of Faraday Rotation measures to infer the magnetic field geometry in AGN jets, providing new observational evidence for helical magnetic fields.

Findings

Bilateral RM sign patterns suggest helical magnetic fields.

Maps reveal complex magnetic field structures in AGN jets.

Evidence supports the presence of toroidal or helical fields in several sources.

Abstract

We present maps of the sign of the Faraday Rotation measure [sign(RM)] obtained from multi-frequency radio observations on the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). Many of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) considered have B-field structures with a central "spine" of B-field orthogonal to the jet and/or a longitudinal B-field near one or both edges of the jet. This structure can plausibly be interpreted as being caused by a helical/toroidal jet magnetic field. Faraday Rotation is a rotation of the plane of polarization that occurs when the polarized radiation passes through a magnetized plasma. The sign of the RM is determined by the direction of the line-of-sight B-Field in the region causing the Faraday Rotation, and an ordered toroidal or helical magnetic field associated with an AGN jet will thus produce a distinctive bilateral distribution of positive and negative RMs across the jet. We present and discuss sign(RM) maps and their possible interpretation regarding the magnetic field geometries for several sources.