Synchrotron Radiation and Faraday Rotation

Synchrotron radiation and its degree of linear polarization are powerful tracers of magnetic fields that are illuminated by cosmic ray electrons. Faraday rotation of the linearly polarized radiation is induced by intervening line-of-sight magnetic fields that are embedded in ionized plasmas. For decades these observational tools have been workhorses for utilizing radio telescopes to study magnetic fields inside and outside the Milky Way. In the modern era they are becoming still more powerful with the advent of broadband receiving systems on the current generation of radio telescopes. In the study of Faraday rotation in particular, rapid development is taking place in techniques to confidently recover the physical conditions of the magnetoionized medium in the Milky Way and extragalactic objects