Magnetic fields in the outskirts of PSZ2 G096.88+24.18 from depolarization analysis of radio relics

TL;DR

This study uses radio polarization observations and simulations to analyze magnetic fields in galaxy cluster relics, revealing the nature of depolarization and estimating magnetic field strength and structure.

Contribution

It combines RM synthesis, resolution degradation, and 3D magnetic field simulations to constrain the magnetic field properties in cluster relics, a novel integrated approach.

Findings

Southern relic's depolarization is external and linked to turbulent gas.

Best-fit magnetic field spectrum matches cosmological simulations.

Cluster magnetic field strength is approximately 2 microGauss.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the polarization properties of the double radio relics in PSZ2 G096.88+24.18 using the rotation measure synthesis, and try to constrain the characteristics of the magnetic field that reproduce the observed beam depolarization. Our aim is to understand the nature of the low polarization fraction that characterizes the southern relic with respect to the northern relic. Using new 1-2 GHz VLA observations, we derive the rotation measure and polarization of the two relics by applying the RM synthesis technique, thus solving for bandwidth depolarization in the wide observing bandwidth. To study the effect of beam depolarization, we degraded the image resolution and studied the decreasing trend of polarization fraction with increasing beam size. Finally, we performed 3D magnetic field simulations using multiple models for the magnetic field power spectrum over a wide range of scales, in order to constrain the characteristics of the cluster magnetic field that can reproduce the observed beam depolarization trend. Using RM synthesis, we obtained a polarization fraction of ($18.6 \pm 0.3$)% for the norther relic and ($14.6 \pm 0.1$)% for the southern one. Having corrected for bandwidth depolarization, we infer that the nature of the depolarization for the southern relic is external, and possibly related to the turbulent gas distribution within the cluster, or to the complex spatial structure of the relic. The best-fit magnetic field power spectrum, that reproduces the observed depolarization trend for the southern relic, is obtained for a turbulent magnetic field model, described by a power spectrum derived from cosmological simulations, and defined within the scales of $\Lambda_{\rm{min}}=35~\rm{kpc}$ and $\Lambda_{\rm{max}}=400~\rm{kpc}$. This yields an average magnetic field of the cluster within 1$~\rm{Mpc}^3$ volume of $\sim 2~\rm{\mu G}$.