The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope has carried out a survey of the entire Southern Sky at 887.5 MHz. The wide area, high angular resolution, and broad bandwidth provided by the low-band Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS-low) allow the production of a next-generation rotation measure (RM) grid across the entire Southern Sky. Here we introduce this project as Spectral and Polarisation in Cutouts of Extragalactic sources from RACS (SPICE-RACS). In our first data release, we image 30 RACS-low fields in Stokes I, Q, U at 25$^{\prime\prime}$ angular resolution, across 744–1032 MHz with 1 MHz spectral resolution. Using a bespoke, highly parallelised, software pipeline we are able to rapidly process wide-area spectro-polarimetric ASKAP observations. Notably, we use ‘postage stamp’ cutouts to assess the polarisation properties of 105912 radio components detected in total intensity. We find that our Stokes Q and U images have an rms noise of $\sim$80 $\unicode{x03BC}$Jy PSF$^{-1}$, and our correction for instrumental polarisation leakage allows us to characterise components with $\gtrsim$1% polarisation fraction over most of the field of view. We produce a broadband polarised radio component catalogue that contains 5818 RM measurements over an area of $\sim$1300 deg$^{2}$ with an average error in RM of $1.6^{+1.1}_{-1.0}$ rad m$^{-2}$, and an average linear polarisation fraction $3.4^{+3.0}_{-1.6}$ %. We determine this subset of components using the conditions that the polarised signal-to-noise ratio is $>$8, the polarisation fraction is above our estimated polarised leakage, and the Stokes I spectrum has a reliable model. Our catalogue provides an areal density of $4\pm2$ RMs deg$^{-2}$; an increase of $\sim$4 times over the previous state-of-the-art (Taylor, Stil, Sunstrum 2009, ApJ, 702, 1230). Meaning that, having used just 3% of the RACS-low sky area, we have produced the 3rd largest RM catalogue to date. This catalogue has broad applications for studying astrophysical magnetic fields; notably revealing remarkable structure in the Galactic RM sky. We will explore this Galactic structure in a follow-up paper. We will also apply the techniques described here to produce an all-Southern-sky RM catalogue from RACS observations. Finally, we make our catalogue, spectra, images, and processing pipeline publicly available.

We propose a role for CO ice mantles in ion recombination reactions, and demonstrate how the subsequent fall in the degree of gas phase ionization decreases the time required for cloud collapse under gravity by a factor of 5-6. Experimental results demonstrate that CO films prepared at cryo-temperatures spontaneously harbour electric fields immediately upon growth. Using what is known from observations about prestellar cloud conditions in the ISM, we explain how this phenomenon can lead to an acceleration in ion recombination reaction rates. The result is a pathway for cloud collapse to occur before cloud disruption by supernova remnants.

Filamentary molecular clouds are thought to fragment to form clumps and cores. However, the fragmentation may be suppressed by magnetic force if the magnetic fields run perpendicularly to the cloud axis. We evaluate the effect using a simple model. Our model cloud is assumed to have a Plummer like radial density distribution, $\rho = {\rho _{\rm{c}}}{\left[ {1 + {r^2}/(2p{H^2})} \right]^{2p}}$ , where r and H denote the radial distance from the cloud axis and the scale length, respectively. The symbols, ρc and p denote the density on the axis and radial density index, respectively. The initial magnetic field is assumed to be uniform and perpendicular to the cloud axis. The model cloud is assumed to be supported against the self gravity by gas pressure and turbulence. We have obtained the growth rate of the fragmentation instability as a function of the wavelength, according to the method of Hanawa, Kudoh & Tomisaka (2017). The instability depends crucially on the outer boundary. If the displacement vanishes in regions very far from the cloud axis, cloud fragmentation is suppressed by a moderate magnetic field. If the displacement is constant along the magnetic field in regions very far from the cloud, the cloud is unstable even when the magnetic field is infinitely strong. The wavelength of the most unstable mode is longer for smaller index, p.

Star formation started as a cosmic process soon after the big bang and still continues in the Milky Way, although at a decreasing rate. The formation of dense interstellar clouds, their fragmentation and eventual collapse lead to the birth of stars. The nearby clouds provide the highest resolution for the study of this process. The progress is closely following the improvement of the infrared and radio-wavelength facilities that enables us to follow even the earliest stages of the star-formation process inside molecular clouds. On the other hand, modern numerical simulations can take into account most of the relevant physics and often provide a more direct access into the general principles of star formation. The comparison of observations and simulations is therefore essential. In this paper, will discuss star formation in the solar neighbourhood, concentrating on the prestellar phases leading up to the formation of protostars.

This review examines observations of magnetic fields in molecular clouds, that is, at spatial scales ranging from tens to tenths of parsecs and densities up to hundreds of particles per cubic centimetre. I will briefly summarize the techniques for observing and mapping magnetic fields in molecular clouds. I will review important examples of observational results obtained using each technique and their implications for our understanding of the role of the magnetic field in molecular cloud formation and evolution. Finally, I will briefly discuss the prospects for advances in our observational capabilities with telescopes and instruments now beginning operation or under construction.

The large-scale magnetic field in the accretion disks of young stars is investigated. Main features of our magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) model of the accretion disks and typical simulation results are presented. We discuss the role of MHD effects, ionization structure, magnetic field geometry and strength of the accretion disks.

We investigate dynamics of slender magnetic flux tubes (MFT) in the accretion disks of young stars. Simulations show that MFT rise from the disk and can accelerate to 20-30 km/s causing periodic outflows. Magnetic field of the disk counteracts the buoyancy, and the MFT oscillate near the disk’s surface with periods of 10-100 days. We demonstrate that rising and oscillating MFT can cause the IR-variability of the accretion disks of young stars.

Protoplanetary disks are expected to form through the gravitational collapse of magnetized rotating dense cores. We discuss the structure and emission of models of accretion disks threaded by a poloidal magnetic field and irradiated by the central star, expected to form in this process (Shu et al. 2007; Lizano et al. 2016). The poloidal magnetic field produces sub-keplerian rotation of the gas which can accelerate planet migration (Adams et al. 2009). It can make the disk more stable against gravitational perturbations (Lizano et al. 2010). Also, the magnetic compression can reduce the disk scale height with respect to nonmagnetic disks. We find that the mass-to-flux ratio λ is a critical parameter: disks with a weaker magnetization (high values of λ) are denser and hotter and emit more at millimeter wavelengths than disks with a stronger magnetization (low values of λ). Applying these models to the millimeter observations of the disk around the young star HL Tau indicate the large grains are present at the external radii in order to reproduce the observed 7 mm emission that extends up to 100 AU (Tapia & Lizano 2017). In the near future, observations with ALMA and VLA will be able to determine the level of magnetization of protoplanetary disks, which will be important to understand their formation and evolution.

I present our observations and modeling of the 1.3 mm and 3.18 mm dust continuum emission in Class 0 protostars, from the IRAM-PdBI CALYPSO survey. We show that most protostars are better reproduced by models including a disk-like dust continuum component contributing to the flux at small scales, but less than 25% of these candidate protostellar disks are resolved at radii >60 au, which favors magnetized models of rotating protostellar collapse for disk formation (Maury et al. 2019). I also present new ALMA observations of the molecular line emission in the IRAM04191 protostar, suggesting a small counter-rotating disk is detected in this young low-luminosity solar-type protostar. Finally, I show our ALMA observations of the magnetic field topology in the B335 protostar, which when compared to the typical output from protostellar collapse models, suggest the magnetic field might be responsible for constraining the disk size to remain very small in this protostar (Maury et al. 2018).

The paper discusses possible impacts of the interstellar medium (ISM) on processes on Earth, first of all those, which may affect the Earth biosphere.

The Galactic magnetic field (GMF) plays a role in many astrophysical processes and is a significant foreground to cosmological signals, such as the Epoch of Reionization (EoR), but is not yet well understood. Dispersion and Faraday rotation measurements (DMs and RMs, respectively) towards a large number of pulsars provide an efficient method to probe the three-dimensional structure of the GMF. Low-frequency polarisation observations with large fractional bandwidth can be used to measure precise DMs and RMs. This is demonstrated by a catalogue of RMs (corrected for ionospheric Faraday rotation) from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), with a growing complementary catalogue in the southern hemisphere from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). These data further our knowledge of the three-dimensional GMF, particularly towards the Galactic halo. Recently constructed or upgraded pathfinder and precursor telescopes, such as LOFAR and the MWA, have reinvigorated low-frequency science and represent progress towards the construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will make significant advancements in studies of astrophysical magnetic fields in the future. A key science driver for the SKA-Low is to study the EoR, for which pulsar and polarisation data can provide valuable insights in terms of Galactic foreground conditions.

This contribution describes how low-frequency radio-spectropolarimetric imaging as done for Epoch of Reionization detection is used to investigate the nearby Galactic interstellar medium. The method of Faraday Tomography allows disentangling of every line of sight into various components in Faraday depth, which is a proxy for density-weighted magnetic field. I discuss instrumental biases and side effects of this method, and early results it has yielded.

The interstellar medium is suffused with magnetic fields, which inform the shape of structures in the diffuse gas. Recent high-dynamic range observations of Galactic neutral hydrogen, combined with novel data analysis techniques, have revealed a deep link between the morphology of neutral gas and the ambient magnetic field. At the same time, an observational revolution is underway in low-frequency radio polarimetry, driven in part by the need to characterize foregrounds to the cosmological 21-cm signal. A new generation of experiments, capable of high angular and Faraday depth resolution, are revealing complex filamentary structures in diffuse polarization. The relationship between filamentary structures observed in radio-polarimetric data and those observed in atomic hydrogen is not yet well understood. Multiwavelength observations will enable new insights into the magnetic interstellar medium across phases.

The Turner-Welch Object in the W3(OH) high-mass star forming complex drives a synchrotron jet, which is quite exceptional for a high-mass protostar, and is associated with a strongly polarized water maser source, W3(H2O), making it an optimal target to investigate the role of magnetic fields on the innermost scales of protostellar disk-jet systems. We report here full polarimetric VLBA observations of water masers. The linearly polarized emission from water masers provides clues on the orientation of the local magnetic field, while the measurement of the Zeeman splitting from circular polarization provides its strength. By combining the information on the measured orientation and strength of the magnetic field with the knowledge of the maser velocities, we infer that the magnetic field evolves from having a dominant component parallel to the outflow velocity in the pre-shock gas (with field strengths of the order of a few tens of mG), to being mainly dominated by the perpendicular component (of order of a few hundred of mG) in the post-shock gas where the water masers are excited. The general implication is that in the undisturbed (i.e. not-shocked) circumstellar gas, the flow velocities would follow closely the magnetic field lines, while in the shocked gas the magnetic field would be re-configured to be parallel to the shock front as a consequence of gas compression.

We present the results from the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA) observations of the ground- and excited-state OH masers at high resolutions towards the massive star-forming region G351.417+0.645 in 2012. We obtain the most accurate spatial gradient of magnetic fields at ground state transitions and verify the reliability of magnetic field strengths measured from previous lower resolution observations. In comparison with previous LBA observations in 2001 at 6.0 GHz, we identified several matched Zeeman pairs. We found that the OH maser features have no significant change of magnetic field strengths and directions with small internal proper motions, implying quite stable physical conditions. Additionally, we found that 1665- and 6035-MHz OH maser features reveal the same trend of reversal of magnetic fields. Moreover, we also analyzed the physical conditions at different locations from the coincidence of different OH maser transitions based on current OH maser models.

We formulate and conduct the time-integration of time evolution equation for the giant molecular cloud mass function (GMCMF) including the cloud-cloud collision (CCC) effect. Our results show that the CCC effect is only limited in the massive-end of the GMCMF and indicate that future high resolution and sensitivity radio observations may constrain giant molecular cloud (GMC) timescales by observing the GMCMF slope in the lower mass regime.

The propagation of extragalactic particles within our Galaxy has been modelled. The flux of such particles is below the observed cosmic ray flux at most energies when their power-law spectrum is extrapolated back from the highest energies. Also, we expect that the propagation of extragalactic particles through static magnetic fields in the Galaxy will not result in a flux change to match the flux of particles measured here within the Galaxy. However, if we were to consider the observed cosmic rays to be of Galactic origin, there would be a remarkable similarity between the required Galactic injection flux and the extrapolated extragalactic flux. We consider here whether the scattering of extragalactic particles in the Galaxy together with an associated energy perturbation might be sufficient for the extragalactic beam to result in the production of ‘Galactic’ particles and, hence, essentially all of the observed cosmic rays. This appears to be possible.

We have made near-infrared (JHKs) imaging polarimetry toward 24 bright-rimmed clouds in the southern hemisphere in order to reveal their magnetic field structures. The obtained polarization vector maps show that the magnetic field directions inside the bright rim are different from its ambient magnetic field direction, implying that magnetic field structures just inside the ionized front of the clouds are due to the gas compression by UV radiation from nearby massive star. Our investigation into the relation between the magnetic field configuration and the shape of the cloud suggests that the magnetic field configuration affects the evolution of the cloud shape.

It has long been recognized that magnetic fields play an important role in many astrophysical environments, yet the strength and structure of magnetic fields beyond our solar system have been at best only qualitatively constrained. The Galactic magnetic field in particular is crucial for modeling the transport of Galactic CRs, for calculating the background to dark matter and CMB-cosmology studies, and for determining the sources of UHECRs. This report gives a brief overview of recent major advances in our understanding of the Galactic magnetic field (GMF) and its lensing of Galactic and ultrahigh energy cosmic rays.

IC5146 is one of the filamentary clouds observed in Herschel Gould Belt Survey. Here we present our polarization observations toward IC5146 taken with AIMPOL, TRIPOL and Mimir. Our results reveal that the large scale structure of magnetic field is well perpendicular to the main filament, but is likely parallel to the sub-filaments, which are structure extended out from the main filaments. We have also conducted CO observations to reveal the gas kinematics along the filaments or magnetic field; this result suggests the gas is possibly confined by magnetic field in most of the region until reaching supercritical. Based on our results, we suggests that at least four types of filaments can be found in IC5146, behaving different physical properties and consistent with different formation mechanisms. Our conclusions reveal that filaments are a combination of a variety types of objects.