Phase-dependent Magnetic Coherence in the Turbulent Interstellar Medium

Abstract

Magnetic fields permeate the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM), yet their phase-dependent structure remains poorly constrained by observations. Dust polarization and H i emission together offer complementary probes of the plane-of-sky magnetic field and cold neutral medium (CNM) gas structure, respectively. Recent observational work has shown that in the diffuse ISM, the dust polarization fraction correlates positively with the CNM mass fraction ( f CNM ) but not with total H i column density, suggesting a phase-dependent magnetic field geometry. Here, we use extremely high-resolution (2048 ³ ) simulations of the turbulent, magnetized, multiphase ISM to investigate the physical origin of this trend. By constructing synthetic H i and dust polarization maps, we directly compare our simulations to the observational results of M. Lei & S. E. Clark. We recover a positive f CNM –polarization correlation for sightlines intersecting fewer than ∼20 discrete CNM clouds, while the trend becomes weak or intermittent for larger cloud counts, consistent with the expectation that high-Galactic-latitude sightlines contain relatively few independent cold structures. We show that this correlation reflects a genuine phase-dependent magnetic structure: CNM clouds tend to be elongated along the local magnetic field and, when normalized by column density, exhibit lower magnetic disorder than the warm neutral medium (WNM). We further demonstrate that apparent discrepancies between simulation- and observation-based measures of magnetic disorder arise from whether disorder is quantified per unit path length or per unit mass. Our results support a picture in which CNM structures host relatively ordered magnetic fields, producing higher polarization fractions along CNM-dominated sightlines in the diffuse ISM.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@article{butsky2026phasedependent,
  title = {{Phase-dependent Magnetic Coherence in the Turbulent Interstellar Medium}},
  author = {Iryna S. Butsky and Caleb Redshaw and Minjie Lei and Susan E. Clark and Drummond B. Fielding},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aeaba0},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaba0},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Phase-dependent Magnetic Coherence in the Turbulent Interstellar Medium
AU  - Iryna S. Butsky
AU  - Caleb Redshaw
AU  - Minjie Lei
AU  - Susan E. Clark
AU  - Drummond B. Fielding
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/27
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aeaba0
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aeaba0
AB  - Magnetic fields permeate the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM), yet their phase-dependent structure remains poorly constrained by observations. Dust polarization and H i emission together offer complementary probes of the plane-of-sky magnetic field and cold neutral medium (CNM) gas structure, respectively. Recent observational work has shown that in the diffuse ISM, the dust polarization fraction correlates positively with the CNM mass fraction ( f CNM ) but not with total H i column density, suggesting a phase-dependent magnetic field geometry. Here, we use extremely high-resolution (2048 ³ ) simulations of the turbulent, magnetized, multiphase ISM to investigate the physical origin of this trend. By constructing synthetic H i and dust polarization maps, we directly compare our simulations to the observational results of M. Lei & S. E. Clark. We recover a positive f CNM –polarization correlation for sightlines intersecting fewer than ∼20 discrete CNM clouds, while the trend becomes weak or intermittent for larger cloud counts, consistent with the expectation that high-Galactic-latitude sightlines contain relatively few independent cold structures. We show that this correlation reflects a genuine phase-dependent magnetic structure: CNM clouds tend to be elongated along the local magnetic field and, when normalized by column density, exhibit lower magnetic disorder than the warm neutral medium (WNM). We further demonstrate that apparent discrepancies between simulation- and observation-based measures of magnetic disorder arise from whether disorder is quantified per unit path length or per unit mass. Our results support a picture in which CNM structures host relatively ordered magnetic fields, producing higher polarization fractions along CNM-dominated sightlines in the diffuse ISM.
SN  - 1538-4357
SN  - 0004-637X
ER  -

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