Seminar by Katia Ferrière (IRAP)

Abstract

The polarized thermal emission from interstellar dust provides a valuable tool for studying both the dust and the magnetic field in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, existing observations only provide the total amount of dust emission along the line of sight (LoS), without any information on its LoS distribution.

In this talk, I will present a new method designed to provide information on the LoS distribution of dust emission, both in terms of intensity and polarization. This method, which relies on three kinematic gas tracers (HI, 12CO, and 13CO emission lines), makes it possible to identify the different clouds present along the LoS and to estimate their contributions to the intensity and polarization of the dust emission. The polarization parameters of the different clouds then allow us to determine their magnetic field orientations.

For illustration, I will apply the method to a small area of the sky containing a star-forming molecular cloud.