Studying the Intermittency of the Magnetized Interstellar Medium by Synchrotron Polarization Intensity and Its Gradient

Abstract

Abstract Based on synthetic polarization observations, we qualitatively investigate the intermittency of the magnetized interstellar medium (ISM) through synchrotron polarization intensity (SPI) and synchrotron polarization gradient (SPG). Three principal findings emerge from our analysis: (1) The intermittency of the magnetized ISM is strongly modulated by magnetization and compressibility, with pronounced modulation effects predominantly observed in regimes characterized by strong magnetization and high compressibility. (2) The characterized intermittency of the magnetized ISM demonstrates a dependence on the electron spectral index under conditions where the random magnetic field dominates. (3) SPG enables the identification of finer three-dimensional fractal structures in the case of strong Faraday depolarization. The synergistic application of SPI and SPG substantially enhances the reliability of probing magnetized ISM intermittency from real observations.