Dispersal of Galactic Magnetic Fields into Intracluster Space

Abstract

Little is known about the origin and basic properties of magnetic fields in clusters of galaxies. High conductivity in magnetized interstellar plasma suggests that galactic magnetic fields are (at least partly) ejected into intracluster (IC) space by the same processes that enrich IC gas with metals. We explore the dispersal of galactic fields by hydrodynamical simulations with our new {\em Enzo-Galcon} code, which is capable of tracking a large number galaxies during cluster assembly, and modeling the processes that disperse their interstellar media. Doing so we are able to describe the evolution of the mean strength of the field and its profile across the cluster. With the known density profile of dispersed gas and an estimated range of coherence scales, we predict the spatial distribution of Faraday rotation measure and find it to be consistent with observational data