The LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project

Understand

Measuring radio waves at low frequencies offers a new window to study cosmic magnetism, and LOFAR is the ideal radio telescope to open this window widely.

• The LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project (MKSP) draws together expertise from multiple fields of magnetism science and intends to use LOFAR to tackle fundamental questions on cosmic magnetism by exploiting a variety of observational techniques.
• Surveys will provide diffuse emission from the Milky Way and from nearby galaxies, tracking the propagation of long-lived cosmic-ray electrons through magnetic field structures, to search for radio halos around spiral and dwarf galaxies and for magnetic fields in intergalactic space.
• Targeted deep-field observations of selected nearby galaxies and suspected intergalactic filaments allow sensitive mapping of weak magnetic fields through Rotation Measure (RM) grids.