摘要：Few normal galaxies have been probed using near-infrared polarimetry, even though it reveals magnetic fields in the cool interstellar medium better than either optical or radio polarimetry. Deep H-band (1.6 μm) linear imaging polarimetry toward Taurus serendipitously included the galaxy 2MASX J04412715+2433110 with adequate sensitivity and resolution to map polarization across nearly its full extent. The observations revealed the galaxy to be a steeply inclined (~75°) disk type with a diameter, encompassing 90% of the Petrosian flux, of 4.2 kpc at a distance of 53 Mpc. Because the sight line passes through the Taurus Molecular Cloud complex, the foreground polarization needed to be measured and removed. The foreground extinction A V of 2.00 ± 0.10 mag and reddening E(H – K) of 0.125 ± 0.009 mag were also assessed and removed, based on analysis of Two Micron All Sky Survey, UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey, Spitzer, and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer photometry using the Near-Infrared Color Excess, NICE-Revisited, and Rayleigh-Jeans Color Excess methods. Corrected for the polarized foreground, the galaxy polarization values range from 0% to 3%. The polarizations are dominated by a disk-parallel magnetic field geometry, especially to the northeast, while either a vertical field or single scattering of bulge light produces disk-normal polarizations to the southwest. The multi-kiloparsec coherence of the magnetic field revealed by the infrared polarimetry is in close agreement with short-wavelength radio synchrotron observations of edge-on galaxies, indicating that both cool and warm interstellar media of disk galaxies may be threaded by common magnetic fields.
关键词：galaxies: magnetic fields;infrared: galaxies;ISM: magnetic fields;magnetic fields;polarization;techniques: polarimetric Online-only material: color figures
