RMTable2023 and PolSpectra2023: Standards for Reporting Polarization and Faraday Rotation Measurements of Radio Sources

Abstract

Faraday rotation measures (RMs) have been used for many studies of cosmic magnetism, and in most cases having more RMs is beneficial for those studies. This has lead to the development of RM surveys that have produced large catalogs, as well as meta-catalogs collecting RMs from many different publications. However, it has been difficult to take full advantage of all of these RMs, as the individual catalogs have been published in many different places, and in many different formats. In addition, the polarization spectra used to determine these RMs are rarely published, limiting the ability to reanalyze data as new methods or additional observations become available. We propose a standard convention for RM catalogs, RMTable2023, and a standard for source-integrated polarized spectra of radio sources, PolSpectra2023. These standards are intended to maximize the value and utility of these data for researchers and to make them easier to access. To demonstrate the use of the RMTable2023 standard, we have produced a consolidated catalog of 55,819 RMs collected from 42 published catalogs.

Keywords

• Radio astronomy
• Spectropolarimetry