The extraordinary linear polarisation structure of the southern centaurus a lobe revealed by ASKAP

Craig S. Anderson; George Heald; Shane P. O'Sullivan; John D. Bunton; Ettore Carretti; Aaron P. Chippendale; Jordan D. Collier; Jamie S. Farnes; Bryan M. Gaensler; Lisa Harvey-Smith; Bärbel S. Koribalski; Tom L. Landecker; Emil Lenc; Naomi M. McClure-Griffiths; Daniel Mitchell; Lawrence Rudnick; Jennifer West

doi:10.3390/galaxies6040127

The extraordinary linear polarisation structure of the southern centaurus a lobe revealed by ASKAP

Craig S. Anderson, George Heald, Shane P. O'Sullivan, John D. Bunton, Ettore Carretti, Aaron P. Chippendale, Jordan D. Collier, Jamie S. Farnes, Bryan M. Gaensler, Lisa Harvey-Smith, Bärbel S. Koribalski, Tom L. Landecker, Emil Lenc, Naomi M. McClure-Griffiths, Daniel Mitchell, Lawrence Rudnick, Jennifer West

Physics and Astronomy (Twin Cities)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present observations of linear polarisation in the southern radio lobe of Centaurus A, conducted during commissioning of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. We used 16 antennas to observe a 30 square degree region in a single 12-h pointing over a 240 MHz band centred on 913 MHz. Our observations achieve an angular resolution of 26 × 33 arcseconds (480 parsecs), a maximum recoverable angular scale of 30 arcminutes, and a full-band sensitivity of 85 μJy beam^-1. The resulting maps of polarisation and Faraday rotation are amongst the most detailed ever made for radio lobes, with order 10⁵ resolution elements covering the source. We describe several as-yet unreported observational features of the lobe, including its detailed peak Faraday depth structure, and intricate networks of depolarised filaments. These results demonstrate the exciting capabilities of ASKAP for widefield radio polarimetry.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	127
Journal	Galaxies
Volume	6
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies6040127
State	Published - Nov 29 2018

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The Australian SKA Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Establishment of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was funded by the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. ASKAP uses advanced supercomputing resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. The POSSUM project has been made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. S.P.O. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grant BR2026/23. Partial support for L.R. is provided through U.S. NSF Grant 1714205 to the University of Minnesota.

Funding Information:
This research received no external funding. The Australian SKA Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Establishment of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was funded by the Australian Government and the Government ofWestern Australia. ASKAP uses advanced supercomputing resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. The POSSUM project has been made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. S.P.O. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grant BR2026/23. Partial support for L.R. is provided through U.S. NSF Grant 1714205 to the University of Minnesota

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors.

Keywords

AGN
Faraday tomography
Magnetic fields
Magnetic turbulence

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10.3390/galaxies6040127

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Anderson, C. S., Heald, G., O'Sullivan, S. P., Bunton, J. D., Carretti, E., Chippendale, A. P., Collier, J. D., Farnes, J. S., Gaensler, B. M., Harvey-Smith, L., Koribalski, B. S., Landecker, T. L., Lenc, E., McClure-Griffiths, N. M., Mitchell, D., Rudnick, L., & West, J. (2018). The extraordinary linear polarisation structure of the southern centaurus a lobe revealed by ASKAP. Galaxies, 6(4), Article 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies6040127

Anderson, CS, Heald, G, O'Sullivan, SP, Bunton, JD, Carretti, E, Chippendale, AP, Collier, JD, Farnes, JS, Gaensler, BM, Harvey-Smith, L, Koribalski, BS, Landecker, TL, Lenc, E, McClure-Griffiths, NM, Mitchell, D, Rudnick, L & West, J 2018, 'The extraordinary linear polarisation structure of the southern centaurus a lobe revealed by ASKAP', Galaxies, vol. 6, no. 4, 127. https://doi.org/10.3390/galaxies6040127

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title = "The extraordinary linear polarisation structure of the southern centaurus a lobe revealed by ASKAP",

abstract = "We present observations of linear polarisation in the southern radio lobe of Centaurus A, conducted during commissioning of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. We used 16 antennas to observe a 30 square degree region in a single 12-h pointing over a 240 MHz band centred on 913 MHz. Our observations achieve an angular resolution of 26 × 33 arcseconds (480 parsecs), a maximum recoverable angular scale of 30 arcminutes, and a full-band sensitivity of 85 μJy beam-1. The resulting maps of polarisation and Faraday rotation are amongst the most detailed ever made for radio lobes, with order 105 resolution elements covering the source. We describe several as-yet unreported observational features of the lobe, including its detailed peak Faraday depth structure, and intricate networks of depolarised filaments. These results demonstrate the exciting capabilities of ASKAP for widefield radio polarimetry.",

keywords = "AGN, Faraday tomography, Magnetic fields, Magnetic turbulence",

author = "Anderson, {Craig S.} and George Heald and O'Sullivan, {Shane P.} and Bunton, {John D.} and Ettore Carretti and Chippendale, {Aaron P.} and Collier, {Jordan D.} and Farnes, {Jamie S.} and Gaensler, {Bryan M.} and Lisa Harvey-Smith and Koribalski, {B{\"a}rbel S.} and Landecker, {Tom L.} and Emil Lenc and McClure-Griffiths, {Naomi M.} and Daniel Mitchell and Lawrence Rudnick and Jennifer West",

note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgments: The Australian SKA Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Establishment of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was funded by the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. ASKAP uses advanced supercomputing resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. The POSSUM project has been made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. S.P.O. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grant BR2026/23. Partial support for L.R. is provided through U.S. NSF Grant 1714205 to the University of Minnesota. Funding Information: This research received no external funding. The Australian SKA Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Establishment of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was funded by the Australian Government and the Government ofWestern Australia. ASKAP uses advanced supercomputing resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. The POSSUM project has been made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. S.P.O. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grant BR2026/23. Partial support for L.R. is provided through U.S. NSF Grant 1714205 to the University of Minnesota Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 by the authors.",

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language = "English (US)",

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AU - Anderson, Craig S.

AU - Heald, George

AU - O'Sullivan, Shane P.

AU - Bunton, John D.

AU - Carretti, Ettore

AU - Chippendale, Aaron P.

AU - Collier, Jordan D.

AU - Farnes, Jamie S.

AU - Gaensler, Bryan M.

AU - Harvey-Smith, Lisa

AU - Koribalski, Bärbel S.

AU - Landecker, Tom L.

AU - Lenc, Emil

AU - McClure-Griffiths, Naomi M.

AU - Mitchell, Daniel

AU - Rudnick, Lawrence

AU - West, Jennifer

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgments: The Australian SKA Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Establishment of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was funded by the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. ASKAP uses advanced supercomputing resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. The POSSUM project has been made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. S.P.O. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grant BR2026/23. Partial support for L.R. is provided through U.S. NSF Grant 1714205 to the University of Minnesota. Funding Information: This research received no external funding. The Australian SKA Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. Establishment of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory was funded by the Australian Government and the Government ofWestern Australia. ASKAP uses advanced supercomputing resources at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site. The POSSUM project has been made possible through funding from the Australian Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. S.P.O. acknowledges financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) under grant BR2026/23. Partial support for L.R. is provided through U.S. NSF Grant 1714205 to the University of Minnesota Publisher Copyright: © 2018 by the authors.

PY - 2018/11/29

Y1 - 2018/11/29

N2 - We present observations of linear polarisation in the southern radio lobe of Centaurus A, conducted during commissioning of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. We used 16 antennas to observe a 30 square degree region in a single 12-h pointing over a 240 MHz band centred on 913 MHz. Our observations achieve an angular resolution of 26 × 33 arcseconds (480 parsecs), a maximum recoverable angular scale of 30 arcminutes, and a full-band sensitivity of 85 μJy beam-1. The resulting maps of polarisation and Faraday rotation are amongst the most detailed ever made for radio lobes, with order 105 resolution elements covering the source. We describe several as-yet unreported observational features of the lobe, including its detailed peak Faraday depth structure, and intricate networks of depolarised filaments. These results demonstrate the exciting capabilities of ASKAP for widefield radio polarimetry.

AB - We present observations of linear polarisation in the southern radio lobe of Centaurus A, conducted during commissioning of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. We used 16 antennas to observe a 30 square degree region in a single 12-h pointing over a 240 MHz band centred on 913 MHz. Our observations achieve an angular resolution of 26 × 33 arcseconds (480 parsecs), a maximum recoverable angular scale of 30 arcminutes, and a full-band sensitivity of 85 μJy beam-1. The resulting maps of polarisation and Faraday rotation are amongst the most detailed ever made for radio lobes, with order 105 resolution elements covering the source. We describe several as-yet unreported observational features of the lobe, including its detailed peak Faraday depth structure, and intricate networks of depolarised filaments. These results demonstrate the exciting capabilities of ASKAP for widefield radio polarimetry.

KW - AGN

KW - Faraday tomography

KW - Magnetic fields

KW - Magnetic turbulence

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DO - 10.3390/galaxies6040127

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VL - 6

JO - Galaxies

JF - Galaxies

IS - 4

M1 - 127

ER -

The extraordinary linear polarisation structure of the southern centaurus a lobe revealed by ASKAP

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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