Sampling the Faraday rotation sky of TNG50: Imprint of the magnetised circumgalactic medium around Milky Way-like galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses synthetic Faraday rotation maps from TNG50 simulations to explore how the magnetised circumgalactic medium around Milky Way-like galaxies affects observed RM signals and the potential for upcoming surveys to detect magnetised clouds.

Contribution

It introduces a method to simulate and analyze Faraday rotation skies around Milky Way-like galaxies, linking CGM magnetic fields to observable RM fluctuations and survey detection prospects.

Findings

Upcoming surveys will enable detection of low-mass, distant magnetised clouds.

RM fluctuations on small scales may largely originate from the Milky Way's CGM.

The CGM's magnetic imprint correlates with galaxy properties such as star formation rate.

Abstract

Faraday rotation measure (RM) is arguably the most practical observational tracer of magnetic fields in the diffuse circumgalactic medium (CGM). We sample synthetic Faraday rotation skies of Milky Way-like galaxies in TNG50 of the IllustrisTNG project by placing an observer inside the galaxies at a solar circle-like position. Our synthetic RM grids emulate specifications of current and upcoming surveys; the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), the Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe's Magnetism (POSSUM), and a future Square Kilometre Array (SKA1-mid) polarisation survey. It has been suggested that magnetic fields regulate the survival of high-velocity clouds. However, there is only a small number of observational detections of magnetised clouds thus far. In the first part of the paper, we test conditions for the detection of magnetised circumgalactic clouds. Based on the synthetic RM samplings of clouds in the simulations, we predict upcoming polarimetric surveys will open opportunities for the detection of even low-mass and distant clouds. In the second part of the paper, we investigate the imprint of the CGM in the all-sky RM distribution. We test whether the RM variation produced by the CGM is correlated with global galaxy properties, such as distance to a satellite, specific star formation rate, neutral hydrogen covering fraction, and accretion rate to the supermassive black hole. We argue that the observed fluctuation in the RM measurements on scales less than 1 degree, which has been considered an indication of intergalactic magnetic fields, might in fact incorporate a significant contribution of the Milky Way CGM.