| Description |
Magnetic fields play pivotal roles in almost every aspect of astrophysics ranging from star formation to large-scale galactic and intergalactic dynamics. Unfortunately much remains unknown about how these fields are generated or how they are evolving. Polarisation studies are precisely what are required to answer these questions of magnetogenesis. We are conducting a feasibility study to measure the magnetic field along the line-of-sight to Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs) which are sources that emit sporadic bursts, detectable in the radio. Several successful attempts to map the Galactic Magnetic field have been made over the last two decades. However this has been done using numerous pulses averaged together. Our pilot study is a novel venture to use individual RRAT pulses to map the Galactic magnetic field. When this proves successful, we will be able to use the same method to map the extragalactic magnetic field to a newly discovered mysterious class of objects called Fast Radio Bursts that are in a way similar to RRATs. This would then yield the very first measurements of the extragalactic magnetic field.
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