Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
A Full Polarization Analysis of NGC 3665471 views
Author
Sheldahl, Evan, Astronomy, University of Virginia
Advisors
Nyland, Kristina, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Abstract
In this thesis, I analyzed Very Large Array (VLA) L-band observations of the Stokes cube coming from the active galactic nucleus (AGN) of the lenticular galaxy NGC 3665. Its data come from the ATLAS 3D Survey, a highly spatially resolved dataset of 260 early type galaxies (ETGs). I present intensity maps of its non-polarized and linearly polarized emission as well as optical R-band and interferometric CO(1-0) molecular gas data. The way in which the molecular gas overlaps with the linearly polarized region suggests interactions between the radio jets and interstellar medium (ISM) are exciting the gas and yielding magnetized plasma, which in turn induces Faraday depolarization in the perceived radio emission. This provides evidence for the close links between galaxy evolution and star formation rate (SFR) being influenced by AGN feedback.
Sheldahl, Evan. A Full Polarization Analysis of NGC 3665. University of Virginia, Astronomy, BS (Bachelor of Science), 2018-05-15, https://doi.org/10.18130/V3F18SF02.
