Mapping magnetic fields from clouds to cores with PRIMAger
High-resolution, wide-area mapping of magnetic field geometries within molecular clouds, including the star-forming filaments and cores within them, is crucial to understanding the role of magnetic fields in the star formation process. We, therefore, propose an unbiased survey of star-forming molecu...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/407423 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/407423 https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/105017857813 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Far infrared Infrared imaging Infrared space observatory Polarimetry |
| Sumario: | High-resolution, wide-area mapping of magnetic field geometries within molecular clouds, including the star-forming filaments and cores within them, is crucial to understanding the role of magnetic fields in the star formation process. We, therefore, propose an unbiased survey of star-forming molecular clouds within 0.5 kpc of the Earth in polarized light with the PRIMAger Polarimetry Imager. We will map magnetic fields over entire molecular clouds at linear resolutions of ∼10<sup>−3</sup> to 10<sup>−2</sup> pc (∼10<sup>3</sup> to 10<sup>4</sup> au) in PRIMAger Bands PPI1 to PPI4, thereby resolving magnetic field structure both within individual star-forming filaments and cores and in the most diffuse regions of molecular clouds. These multiwavelength polarimetric observations will allow us to systematically investigate both the wide range of open questions about the role of magnetic fields in star formation and the evolution of the interstellar medium, and interstellar dust grain properties. The time required to map the area observed by the Herschel Gould Belt Survey (160 deg<sup>2</sup>) to the cirrus confusion limit in polarized light is 170 h. This will give a 5-σ detection of 20% polarized low-density cirrus emission, with surface brightness in polarized intensity of 1.0 to 2.4 MJy∕sr across the PRIMAger bands, and will ensure detection of polarized emission at all higher column densities. This time estimate can be simply scaled up to map magnetic fields in a larger sample of molecular clouds, including more distant regions of higher-mass star formation. |
|---|