Abstract
This is a review of the status of efforts to model the large-scale Galactic magnetic field (GMF). Though important for a variety of astrophysical processes, the GMF remains poorly understood despite some interesting new tracers being used in the field. Though we still have too many models that might fit the data, this is not to say that the field has not developed in the last few years. In particular, surveys of polarized dust have given us a new observable that is complementary to the more traditional radio tracers, and a variety of other new tracers and related measurements are becoming available to improve current modeling. This paper reviews: the tracers available; the models that have been studied; what has been learned so far; what the caveats and outstanding issues are; and one opinion of where the most promising future avenues of exploration lie.
Highlights
The morphology of the large-scale Galactic magnetic field (GMF) is surprisingly poorly understood for such an important component of the Milky Way’s interstellar medium (ISM)
There is a long list of topics in Galactic astrophysics that currently depend on an incomplete understanding of the GMF, such as disk dynamics, cosmic-ray propagation, the turbulent ISM, molecular cloud collapse, star formation, supernova remnant evolution, etc
The search for the sources of the highest energy particles in the Universe, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is complicated by the fact that these particles are deflected by magnetic fields as they propagate to the Earth, so back-tracing them requires an accurate GMF model
Summary
The morphology of the large-scale Galactic magnetic field (GMF) is surprisingly poorly understood for such an important component of the Milky Way’s interstellar medium (ISM). The search for the sources of the highest energy particles in the Universe, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) is complicated by the fact that these particles are deflected by magnetic fields as they propagate to the Earth, so back-tracing them requires an accurate GMF model (see Section 3.4). These needs have driven some of the modeling work in the field and will continue to do so.
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