The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic Center
We present the magnetic field in the dense material of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way, traced in 850 μ m polarized dust emission as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope B -fields in STar-forming Region Observations survey. We observe a highly ordered magnetic field across the...
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2025-01-01
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| author | Janik Karoly Derek Ward-Thompson Kate Pattle Steven N. Longmore James Di Francesco Anthony Whitworth Doug Johnstone Sarah Sadavoy Patrick M. Koch Meng-Zhe Yang Ray Furuya Xing Lu Motohide Tamura Victor P. Debattista David Eden Jihye Hwang Frédérick Poidevin Bijas N. Szu-Ting Chen Eun Jung Chung Simon Coudé Sheng-Jun Lin Yasuo Doi Takashi Onaka Lapo Fanciullo Tie Liu Guangxing Li Pierre Bastien Tetsuo Hasegawa Woojin Kwon Shih-Ping Lai Keping Qiu |
| author_facet | Janik Karoly Derek Ward-Thompson Kate Pattle Steven N. Longmore James Di Francesco Anthony Whitworth Doug Johnstone Sarah Sadavoy Patrick M. Koch Meng-Zhe Yang Ray Furuya Xing Lu Motohide Tamura Victor P. Debattista David Eden Jihye Hwang Frédérick Poidevin Bijas N. Szu-Ting Chen Eun Jung Chung Simon Coudé Sheng-Jun Lin Yasuo Doi Takashi Onaka Lapo Fanciullo Tie Liu Guangxing Li Pierre Bastien Tetsuo Hasegawa Woojin Kwon Shih-Ping Lai Keping Qiu |
| author_sort | Janik Karoly |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We present the magnetic field in the dense material of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way, traced in 850 μ m polarized dust emission as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope B -fields in STar-forming Region Observations survey. We observe a highly ordered magnetic field across the CMZ between Sgr B2 and Sgr C that is strongly preferentially aligned with the orbital gas flows within the clouds of the CMZ. We find that the observed relative orientations are nonrandom at a >99% confidence level and are consistent with models in which the magnetic field vectors are aligned within 30° to the gas flows in 3D. The deviations from aligned magnetic fields are most prominent at positive Galactic longitudes, where the CMZ clouds are more massive, denser, and more actively forming stars. Our observed strongly preferentially parallel magnetic field morphology leads us to hypothesize that in the absence of star formation, the magnetic field in the CMZ is entrained in the orbital gas flows around Sgr A*, while gravitational collapse and feedback in star-forming regions can locally reorder the field. This magnetic field behavior is similar to that observed in the CMZ of the nuclear starburst galaxy NGC 253. This suggests that despite its current low star formation rate, the CMZ of the Milky Way is analogous to those of more distant, actively star-forming, galaxies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c60a5804d5a0492088f49700dbfa0d9d |
| institution | DOAJ |
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| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-c60a5804d5a0492088f49700dbfa0d9d2025-08-20T02:41:39ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Letters2041-82052025-01-019821L2210.3847/2041-8213/adbc67The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic CenterJanik Karoly0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5996-3600Derek Ward-Thompson1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1140-2761Kate Pattle2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8557-3582Steven N. Longmore3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6353-0170James Di Francesco4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9289-2450Anthony Whitworth5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1178-5486Doug Johnstone6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6773-459XSarah Sadavoy7https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7474-6874Patrick M. Koch8https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2777-5861Meng-Zhe Yang9https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5699-2723Ray Furuya10https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0646-8782Xing Lu11https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2619-9305Motohide Tamura12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6510-0681Victor P. Debattista13https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7902-0116David Eden14https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5881-3229Jihye Hwang15https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7866-2686Frédérick Poidevin16https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5391-5568Bijas N.17Szu-Ting Chen18https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1088-9062Eun Jung Chung19https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0014-1527Simon Coudé20https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0859-0805Sheng-Jun Lin21https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6868-4483Yasuo Doi22https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8746-6548Takashi Onaka23https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8234-6747Lapo Fanciullo24https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9930-9240Tie Liu25https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5286-2564Guangxing Li26https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3144-1952Pierre Bastien27https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0794-3859Tetsuo Hasegawa28https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1853-0184Woojin Kwon29https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4022-4132Shih-Ping Lai30https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5522-486XKeping Qiu31https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5093-5088Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London , WC1E 6BT London, UK ; j.karoly@ucl.ac.uk; Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire , Preston PR1 2HE, UKJeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire , Preston PR1 2HE, UKDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, University College London , WC1E 6BT London, UK ; j.karoly@ucl.ac.ukAstrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University , 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UKNRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics , 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria , Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, CanadaCHART, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University , The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UKNRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics , 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria , Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, CanadaDepartment for Physics, Engineering Physics and Astrophysics, Queen’s University , Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, CanadaAcademia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics , No.1, Sec. 4., Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, TaiwanInstitute of Astronomy and Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu 30013, TaiwanInstitute of Liberal Arts and Sciences Tokushima University , Minami Jousanajima-machi 1-1, Tokushima 770-8502, JapanShanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo , 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Astrobiology Center, National Institutes of Natural Sciences , 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, National Institutes of Natural Sciences , Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, JapanJeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire , Preston PR1 2HE, UKDepartment of Physics, University of Bath , Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK; Armagh Observatory and Planetarium, College Hill , Armagh BT61 9DB, UKKorea Astronomy and Space Science Institute , 776 Daedeokdae-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34055, Republic of KoreaInstituto de Astrofisíca de Canarias , 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain; Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) , 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, SpainJodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester , Oxford Road, Manchester, UKInstitute of Liberal Arts and Sciences Tokushima University , Minami Jousanajima-machi 1-1, Tokushima 770-8502, JapanInstituto de Astrofisíca de Canarias , 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands, SpainDepartment of Earth, Environment, and Physics, Worcester State University , Worcester, MA 01602, USA; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USAInstitute of Astronomy and Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu 30013, Taiwan; Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences Tokushima University , Minami Jousanajima-machi 1-1, Tokushima 770-8502, JapanDepartment of Earth Science and Astronomy, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo , 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro, Tokyo 153-8902, JapanAstrobiology Center, National Institutes of Natural Sciences , 2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, JapanNational Chung Hsing University , 145 Xingda Road, South Dist., Taichung City 402, TaiwanKey Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences , 80 Nandan Road, Shanghai 200030, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Astronomy, Yunnan University , Kunming 650091, People’s Republic of ChinaCentre de recherche en astrophysique du Québec & département de physique, Université de Montréal , 1375, Avenue Thérèse-Lavoie-Roux, Montréal, QC, H2V 0B3, CanadaDepartment of Physics, University of Bath , Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UKDepartment of Earth Science Education, Seoul National University , 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea; SNU Astronomy Research Center, Seoul National University , 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea; The Center for Educational Research, Seoul National University , 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of KoreaInstitute of Astronomy and Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu 30013, TaiwanSchool of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University , 163 Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, People’s Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics , Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, People’s Republic of ChinaWe present the magnetic field in the dense material of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way, traced in 850 μ m polarized dust emission as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope B -fields in STar-forming Region Observations survey. We observe a highly ordered magnetic field across the CMZ between Sgr B2 and Sgr C that is strongly preferentially aligned with the orbital gas flows within the clouds of the CMZ. We find that the observed relative orientations are nonrandom at a >99% confidence level and are consistent with models in which the magnetic field vectors are aligned within 30° to the gas flows in 3D. The deviations from aligned magnetic fields are most prominent at positive Galactic longitudes, where the CMZ clouds are more massive, denser, and more actively forming stars. Our observed strongly preferentially parallel magnetic field morphology leads us to hypothesize that in the absence of star formation, the magnetic field in the CMZ is entrained in the orbital gas flows around Sgr A*, while gravitational collapse and feedback in star-forming regions can locally reorder the field. This magnetic field behavior is similar to that observed in the CMZ of the nuclear starburst galaxy NGC 253. This suggests that despite its current low star formation rate, the CMZ of the Milky Way is analogous to those of more distant, actively star-forming, galaxies.https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adbc67Galactic centerMagnetic fieldsMolecular cloudsStar formation |
| spellingShingle | Janik Karoly Derek Ward-Thompson Kate Pattle Steven N. Longmore James Di Francesco Anthony Whitworth Doug Johnstone Sarah Sadavoy Patrick M. Koch Meng-Zhe Yang Ray Furuya Xing Lu Motohide Tamura Victor P. Debattista David Eden Jihye Hwang Frédérick Poidevin Bijas N. Szu-Ting Chen Eun Jung Chung Simon Coudé Sheng-Jun Lin Yasuo Doi Takashi Onaka Lapo Fanciullo Tie Liu Guangxing Li Pierre Bastien Tetsuo Hasegawa Woojin Kwon Shih-Ping Lai Keping Qiu The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic Center The Astrophysical Journal Letters Galactic center Magnetic fields Molecular clouds Star formation |
| title | The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic Center |
| title_full | The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic Center |
| title_fullStr | The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic Center |
| title_full_unstemmed | The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic Center |
| title_short | The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Magnetic Fields Align with Orbital Structure in the Galactic Center |
| title_sort | jcmt bistro survey magnetic fields align with orbital structure in the galactic center |
| topic | Galactic center Magnetic fields Molecular clouds Star formation |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/adbc67 |
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