Mapping of the structure of the galactic magnetic field with velocity gradients: Test using star light polarization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using velocity gradients to map the three-dimensional structure of the galactic magnetic field, validated through comparison with star light polarization data.

Contribution

It presents the first 3D mapping of the galactic magnetic field using velocity gradients and validates the approach with stellar polarization measurements.

Findings

Good correspondence between derived magnetic field and polarization directions

Validated the method's accuracy for 3D magnetic field mapping

Produced the first velocity-gradient-based 3D magnetic field map

Abstract

We apply Velocity Channel Gradients (VChGs) and Reduced Velocity Centroids Gradients (RVCGs) to H I data (the LAB survey), obtaining the plane-of-sky component (POS) of the magnetic field as a function of the relative velocity. Assuming a galactic rotation curve, we transformed the relative velocities to distances, constructing the first map of the POS magnetic field at every point of the celestial sphere as a function of the distance. To test the accuracy of our 3D distribution, we used a set of stars with known distances from the stellar polarization catalog. We compared the polarization directions that we obtain with the VChGs and RVCGs against the starlight polarization directions. We find a good correspondence between the derived magnetic field and measured polarization directions, which testifies to the accuracy of this new way of probing the 3D galactic POS magnetic field structure.