A Wideband Polarization Observation of Hydra A with the Jansky Very Large Array

Abstract

We present the results of a wideband high-resolution polarization study of Hydra A, one of the most luminous FR I radio galaxies known and among the most well studied. The radio emission from this source displays extremely large Faraday rotation measures (RMs), ranging from −12,300 rad m ^−2 to 5000 rad m ^−2 , the majority of which are believed to originate from magnetized thermal gas external to the radio tails. The radio emission from both tails strongly depolarizes with decreasing frequency. Depolarization, as a function of wavelength, is commonly nonmonotonic, often showing oscillatory behavior, with strongly nonlinear rotation of the polarization position angle with λ ^2 . A simple model, based on the RM screen derived from the high-frequency, high-resolution data, predicts the lower frequency depolarization remarkably well. The success of this model indicates the majority of the depolarization can be attributed to fluctuations in the magnetic field on scales <1500 pc, suggesting the presence of turbulent magnetic field/electron density structures on subkiloparsec scales within a Faraday rotating medium.

Keywords

• Extragalactic magnetic fields
• Extragalactic radio sources
• Extragalactic astronomy
• Radio galaxies
• Intracluster medium
• Galaxy clusters