Synchrotron intensity gradient revealing magnetic fields in galaxy clusters

Yue Hu; C Stuardi; A Lazarian; G Brunetti; A Bonafede; Ka Wai Ho

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-45164-8

Synchrotron intensity gradient revealing magnetic fields in galaxy clusters

Nat Commun. 2024 Feb 6;15(1):1006. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-45164-8.

Authors

Yue Hu^{1

2}, C Stuardi^{3

4}, A Lazarian⁵, G Brunetti⁴, A Bonafede^{3

4}, Ka Wai Ho^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. yue.hu@wisc.edu.
² Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. yue.hu@wisc.edu.
³ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universitá di Bologna, Via Gobetti 93/2, I-40129, Bologna, Italy.
⁴ INAF-Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna, Via Gobetti 101, I-40129, Bologna, Italy.
⁵ Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA. alazarian@facstaff.wisc.edu.
⁶ Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.
⁷ Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.

Abstract

Magnetic fields and their dynamical interplay with matter in galaxy clusters contribute to the physical properties and evolution of the intracluster medium. However, the current understanding of the origin and properties of cluster magnetic fields is still limited by observational challenges. In this article, we map the magnetic fields at hundreds-kpc scales of five clusters RXC J1314.4-2515, Abell 2345, Abell 3376, MCXC J0352.4-7401, and El Gordo using the synchrotron intensity gradient technique in conjunction with high-resolution radio observations from the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) and the Karoo Array Telescope (MeerKAT). We demonstrate that the magnetic field orientation of radio relics derived from synchrotron intensity gradient is in agreement with that obtained with synchrotron polarization. Most importantly, the synchrotron intensity gradient is not limited by Faraday depolarization in the cluster central regions and allows us to map magnetic fields in the radio halos of RXC J1314.4-2515 and El Gordo. We find that magnetic fields in radio halos exhibit a preferential direction along the major merger axis and show turbulent structures at higher angular resolution. The results are consistent with expectations from numerical simulations, which predict turbulent magnetic fields in cluster mergers that are stirred and amplified by matter motions.