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Estimation of Magnetic Fields from Synchrotron Emission: Numerical Tests

  • Authors: Nora B. Linzer, Lucia Armillotta, Eve C. Ostriker, Eliot Quataert

Nora B. Linzer et al 2026 The Astrophysical Journal 996 .

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 7.

Each panel shows a two-dimensional histogram comparing one prediction of the magnetic field strength to the simulated, mass-averaged value. These distributions include all pixels across all R8 snapshots. The left panel estimates the magnetic field using Equation (24), where the total CR energy density ec is assumed to be a spatially constant value determined by equipartition with the spatial average value of the magnetic energy density. The middle panel also assumes spatially constant ec, adopting a calibrated relationship between cosmic-ray pressure and star formation rate (SFR) per unit area, ΣSFR. The right panel assumes a spatially constant ec and estimates the mean CR pressure as a fraction of the total dynamical equilibrium pressure (or ISM weight; Equation (37)). In all three panels, the black, dashed line shows Bpred = Bavg, and the purple line shows the best-fit power law to the distribution. The red points represent the box-averaged values of Bpred and Bavg from each simulation snapshot. In all three models, we see an improvement in the scaling of Bpred relative to Bavg compared to the distribution shown in Figure 3.

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