Diagnostics of magnetohydrodynamic modes in the ISM through synchrotron polarization statistics

TL;DR

This paper develops and tests a numerical method to identify different MHD turbulence modes in the interstellar medium using synchrotron polarization statistics, aiding understanding of cosmic processes.

Contribution

It introduces a revised SPA method with a new classification criterion and asymmetry parameter for distinguishing MHD modes from synchrotron polarization data.

Findings

Successfully identifies Alfvén, slow, and fast modes in simulations.

The method is robust against Faraday rotation effects.

Provides a practical recipe for observational mode classification.

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges in understanding Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is identifying the plasma mode components from observational data. Previous studies on synchrotron polarization from the interstellar medium (ISM) suggest that the dominant MHD modes can be identified via statistics of Stokes parameters, which would be crucial for studying various ISM processes such as the scattering and acceleration of cosmic rays, star formation, dynamo. In this paper, we present a numerical study of the Synchrotron Polarization Analysis (SPA) method through systematic investigation of the statistical properties of the Stokes parameters. We derive the theoretical basis for our method from the fundamental statistics of MHD turbulence, recognizing that the projection of the MHD modes allows us to identify the modes dominating the energy fraction from synchrotron observations. Based on the discovery, we revise the SPA method using synthetic synchrotron polarization observations obtained from 3D ideal MHD simulations with a wide range of plasma parameters and driving mechanisms, and present a modified recipe for mode identification. We propose a classification criterion based on a new SPA+ fitting procedure, which allows us to distinguish between Alfv\'en mode and compressible/slow mode dominated turbulence. We further propose a new method to identify fast modes by analyzing the asymmetry of the SPA+ signature and establish a new asymmetry parameter to detect the presence of fast mode turbulence. Additionally, we confirm through numerical tests that the identification of the compressible and fast modes is not affected by Faraday rotation in both the emitting plasma and the foreground.