Probing Three-Dimensional Magnetic Fields: I -- Polarized Dust Emission

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to estimate the three-dimensional orientation of interstellar magnetic fields using polarized dust emission, accounting for turbulence effects, and demonstrates its effectiveness across various magnetic regimes.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel technique to determine magnetic field inclination angles from polarization data, incorporating turbulence effects, and validate it with simulations across different magnetic conditions.

Findings

The method accurately estimates inclination angles with median errors ≤10°.

Magnetic field fluctuations are mainly responsible for depolarization.

The technique works in sub-Alfvénic to moderately super-Alfvénic regimes.

Abstract

Polarized dust emission is widely used to trace the plane-of-the-sky (POS) component of interstellar magnetic fields in two dimensions. Its potential to access three-dimensional magnetic fields, including the inclination angle of the magnetic fields relative to the line-of-sight (LOS), is crucial for a variety of astrophysical problems. Based on the statistical features of observed polarization fraction and POS Alfv\'en Mach number $\overline{M_{\rm A}}_{,\bot}$ distribution, we present a new method for estimating the inclination angle. The magnetic field fluctuations raised by anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are taken into account in our method. By using synthetic dust emission generated from 3D compressible MHD turbulence simulations, we show that the fluctuations are preferentially perpendicular to the mean magnetic field. We find the inclination angle is the major agent for depolarization, while fluctuations of magnetic field strength and density have an insignificant contribution. We propose and demonstrate that the mean inclination angle over a region of interest can be calculated from the polarization fraction in a strongly magnetized reference position, where $\overline{M_{\rm A}}_{,\bot}^2\ll1$. We test and show that the new method can trace the 3D magnetic fields in sub-Alfv\'enic, trans-Alfv\'enic, and moderately super-Alfv\'enic conditions ($0.4\lesssim M_{\rm A}\lesssim1.2$). We numerically quantify that the difference between the estimated inclination angle and actual inclination angle ranges from 0 to $20^\circ$ with a median value of $\le10^\circ$.