A comparison between Galactic magnetic field models and polarized synchrotron emission with C-BASS at 4.76 GHz and S-PASS at 2.3 GHz

Journal article

We compare a set of contemporary Galactic magnetic field (GMF) models with polarized synchrotron observations from the S-PASS and C-BASS radio surveys and combine them to create a reconstructed 4.76 GHz full sky map. Pixels that potentially have a large Faraday rotation are excluded while small () Faraday corrections derived at the respective frequencies of the two surveys are applied to the rest of the map. Using a template-fitting approach, we evaluate the ability of each model to reproduce the observed polarization amplitudes and polarization angles. We find that while most GMF models match the polarization angles reasonably well, they often fail to reproduce the morphology of the polarized intensity. We find that for most models, there is a clear correlation between the data and models in polarization angles on large scales, but this does not hold true for polarized intensity. Our results show that a large portion of the polarized sky is shaped by local ‘foreground’ features such as the North Polar Spur/Loop I and the Fan region. We conclude that incorporating such local structures is essential for accurately modelling the polarized synchrotron emission at microwave frequencies.

Authors: Shaw, V; Harper, SE; Dickinson, C; Leahy, JP; Hoerning, GA

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 549
• Issue: 4
• Pages: stag989
• Article number: stag989
• Publication date: 2026-05-28
• Acceptance date: 2026-05-21
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stag989
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: cosmic rays; surveys; radiation mechanisms: non-thermal; galaxies: magnetic fields; polarization