The nature of the low-frequency emission of M51: First observations of a nearby galaxy with LOFAR

TL;DR

This study presents the first LOFAR observations of the nearby galaxy M51 at low frequencies, revealing detailed insights into its radio emission, cosmic ray propagation, and thermal absorption effects, with implications for understanding galaxy magnetic fields.

Contribution

First low-frequency, high-resolution LOFAR imaging of M51, providing new insights into cosmic ray diffusion, thermal absorption, and magnetic field structure in a nearby galaxy.

Findings

Total emission image at 151 MHz with 20 arcsec resolution

Radial profile shows a break near the optical radius

CRE diffusion explains scale lengths and arm--interarm contrast

Abstract

The grand-design spiral galaxy M51 was observed with the LOFAR High Frequency Antennas (HBA) and imaged in total intensity and polarisation. This observation covered the frequencies between 115 MHz and 175 MHz. We produced an image of total emission of M51 at the mean frequency of 151 MHz with 20 arcsec resolution and 0.3 mJy rms noise, which is the most sensitive image of a galaxy at frequencies below 300 MHz so far. The integrated spectrum of total radio emission is described well by a power law, while flat spectral indices in the central region indicate thermal absorption. We observe that the disk extends out to 16 kpc and see a break in the radial profile near the optical radius of the disk. Our main results, the scale lengths of the inner and outer disks at 151 MHz and 1.4 GHz, arm--interarm contrast, and the break scales of the radio--far-infrared correlations, can be explained consistently by CRE diffusion, leading to a longer propagation length of CRE of lower energy. The distribution of CRE sources drops sharply at about 10 kpc radius, where the star formation rate also decreases sharply. We find evidence that thermal absorption is primarily caused by HII regions. The non-detection of polarisation from M51 at 151 MHz is consistent with the estimates of Faraday depolarisation. Future searches for polarised emission in this frequency range should concentrate on regions with low star formation rates.