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I am Hongquan Su, a PhD candidate at ICRAR-Curtin.

Project topic

Mapping the Galaxy in 3D using observations of HII region absorption with the MWA

Project details

Synchrotron emission pervades the Galactic plane at low radio frequencies, originating from cosmic ray electrons interacting with the Galactic magnetic field. Using a low-frequency radio telescope, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), I measure the free-free absorption of this Galactic synchrotron emission by intervening HII regions along the line of sight. These absorption measurements allow me to calculate the Galactic cosmic-ray electron emissivity behind and in front of HII regions. This will enable testing of the spatial distribution of cosmic-ray electrons with a known Galactic magnetic field.

Progress

The initial measurements have been reported:

Galactic synchrotron emissivity measurements between 250 < l < 355 from the GLEAM survey with the MWA

gp_img_threeA portion of the Galactic plane at 88 MHz from the GLEAM survey. The white polygons and yellow circles show the HII regions with detected and undetected absorption features, respectively.

 

ICRAR Statement

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