New constraints on the magnetization of the cosmic web using LOFAR Faraday rotation observations

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 495, Issue 3, July 2020, Pages 2607–2619: © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Measuring the properties of extragalactic magnetic fields through the effect of Faraday rotation provides a means to understand the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism. Here we use data from the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) to calculate the Faraday rotation measure (RM) of close pairs of extragalactic radio sources. By considering the RM difference ($\Delta$RM) between physical pairs (e.g. double-lobed radio galaxies) and non-physical pairs (i.e. close projected sources on the sky), we statistically isolate the contribution of extragalactic magnetic fields to the total RM variance along the line of sight. We find a difference in the rms of $\Delta$RM between non-physical and physical pairs of 0.4$\pm$0.3 rad/m$^2$, and a difference in the corresponding median |$\Delta$RM| values of 0.3$\pm$0.4 rad/m$^2$. This enables us to place an upper limit on the co-moving cosmological magnetic field strength of $B