Faraday Tomography with CHIME: The “Tadpole” Feature G137+7

Abstract

A direct consequence of Faraday rotation is that the polarized radio sky does not resemble the total intensity sky at long wavelengths. We analyze G137+7, which is undetectable in total intensity but appears as a depolarization feature. We use the first polarization maps from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment. Our 400–729 MHz bandwidth and angular resolution, 17′ – 30′ , allow us to use Faraday synthesis to analyze the polarization structure. In polarized intensity and polarization angle maps, we find a tail extending 10° from the head and designate the combined object, the tadpole. Similar polarization angles, distinct from the background, indicate that the head and tail are physically associated. The head appears as a depolarized ring in single channels, but wideband observations show that it is a Faraday rotation feature. Our investigations of H i and Hα find no connections to the tadpole. The tail suggests motion of either the gas or an ionizing star through the interstellar medium; the B2(e) star HD 20336 is a candidate. While the head features a coherent, ∼ −8 rad m−2 Faraday depth, Faraday synthesis also identifies multiple components in both the head and tail. We verify the locations of the components in the spectra using QU fitting. Our results show that approximately octave-bandwidth Faraday rotation observations at ∼600 MHz are sensitive to low-density ionized or partially ionized gas, which is undetectable in other tracers.