Estimation of Magnetic Fields from Synchrotron Emission: Numerical Tests

TL;DR

This study tests the accuracy of traditional magnetic field estimation methods from synchrotron emission in simulated interstellar medium, finding they work well at large scales but need adjustments at smaller scales, and demonstrates how to recover magnetic field directions.

Contribution

It evaluates the validity of equipartition-based magnetic field estimates across different scales and proposes improved methods for small-scale analysis using synthetic observations.

Findings

Equipartition estimates are accurate at kpc scales.

At smaller scales, assuming constant CR energy density improves estimates.

Magnetic field directions can be reliably recovered from synthetic polarized emission.

Abstract

We use models of spectrally resolved cosmic ray (CR) transport in TIGRESS MHD simulations of the local ISM to produce synthetic synchrotron emission and to test, on scales from a few kpc down to ~10 pc, the traditional estimate of magnetic field strength based on the assumption of equipartition between the magnetic and total CR energy densities. Our analysis shows that the traditional equipartition estimate works well at the kpc scale of the simulation box, but breaks down at smaller scales. We find that the predicted magnetic field strength can be improved at small scales by assuming a constant CR energy density across each mock radio observation. The large-scale mean CR energy density can be estimated by assuming equipartition with the large-scale mean magnetic energy density, or as a function of additional observable quantities such as the star formation rate surface density or gas weight. In addition to estimating the magnetic field strength, we use synthetic polarized emission to create maps of the magnetic field direction. We find that the true magnetic field direction can be recovered well from the mock observations.