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Paper: On the Use of Velocity Anisotropy as a Measure of the Interstellar Magnetic Field: Confluence of Observations and Numerics
Volume: 474, Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows (ASTRONUM2012)
Page: 9
Authors: Burkhart, B.; Lazarian, A.; Leão, I.; de Medeiros, J. R.
Abstract: The dynamics of the interstellar medium (ISM) are strongly affected by turbulence, which shows increased anisotropy in the presence of a magnetic field. We present a review of a new method to estimate the magnetic field strength using position-position-velocity (PPV) radio cubes. This technique utilizes the anisotropy created by the magnetic field, which manifests in velocity centroid maps and can provide the perpendicular component of the field strength. We utilize magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of fully developed turbulence to produce synthetic observations in order to test these methods and discuss their applicability for the observations considering beam smoothing and noise. This opens up the possibility of studying the magnetic nature of the ISM using statistical methods which are easier to apply than existing observational techniques.
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