3D mapping of the interstellar magnetic field
Abstract: The polarized thermal emission from interstellar dust offers a valuable tool to probe both the dust and the magnetic field in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, the existing observations only lead to the total amount of dust emission along the line of sight (LoS), with no information on its LoS distribution.
In this talk, I will present a new method designed to give access to the LoS distribution of the dust emission, both in intensity and in 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 the polarization of the dust emission. The polarization parameters of the different clouds then lead to their magnetic field orientations.
For illustration, I will apply the method to a small area of the sky containing a star-forming molecular cloud.