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arXiv · 2502.14961

SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration Survey. V. The Magnetic Field Strength and Morphology in the Sagittarius C Complex

Roy J. Zhao·Mark R. Morris·David T. Chuss·Dylan M. Paré·Jordan A. Guerra·Natalie O. Butterfield·Edward J. Wollack·Kaitlyn Karpovich
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Abstract

We present an analysis of the magnetic field strength and morphology in the Sagittarius C complex (Sgr C; G359.43-0.09) in the Milky Way Galaxy's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), using the 214 $μ$m polarimetry data acquired with the High-resolution Airborne Wide-band Camera (HAWC+) instrument aboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). We conduct a modified Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi (DCF) analysis of individual clouds and find that the sky-plane magnetic field strength varies from highly turbulent regions having inferred strengths of $\sim30~μ{\rm G}$ to regions of relatively uniform field orientation having strengths of $\sim 300~μ{\rm G}$. Several hundred magnetic field pseudovectors in the Sgr C region were measured to trace the projected magnetic field orientation within cold molecular clouds, and as is the trend throughout the CMZ, they show a higher polarization fraction toward the periphery of the clouds. The magnetic field orientations suggest that outflows from active star-forming regions, such as the G359.43-0.10 extended green object (EGO) and the protostellar source FIR-4 (G359.43+0.02), cause high turbulence in their vicinity. The magnetic field direction is found to be tangential to the surface of the Sgr C HII region, which displays spatial correspondence with two [CII] emission cavities reported in the HII region, signifying a compression front between the HII region and the surrounding dense clouds. Several other features in the vicinity of Sgr C, especially numerous non-thermal radio filaments (NTFs) and a diffuse source of X-ray emission to the immediate southwest of the HII region, are discussed with regard to the magnetic field measurements.

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Roy J. Zhao, Mark R. Morris, David T. Chuss, Dylan M. Paré, Jordan A. Guerra, Natalie O. Butterfield, Edward J. Wollack, Kaitlyn Karpovich. 2025-07-03. SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration Survey. V. The Magnetic Field Strength and Morphology in the Sagittarius C Complex. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fade80d

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