The effect of turbulent fluctuations in the interstellar gas and magnetic field on Faraday rotation |
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| Authors: | I Lerche |
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| Institution: | (1) Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill., USA |
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| Abstract: | The effect of fluctuations in both the interstellar electron number density and galactic magnetic field on the propagation of high frequency radio waves is discussed in terms of the frequency dependent Faraday rotation. It is shown that when the fluctuations are representative of large scale disturbances (1–102 pc) in the interstellar medium, then the observed Faraday rotation is not a measure of the line of sight integral of the product of the magnetic field with the electron number density.Since evidence has been presented elsewhere for believing that such large scale disturbances do exist in our galaxy, some care must be exercised in the physical interpretation of Faraday rotation measurements.Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow. |
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