Distribution of free electrons in the galactic plane

Abstract

A method is proposed for constructing a map of the electron density distribution in the galactic plane. Data on the dispersion measures DM of more than 1500 pulsars and their distances, found by an independent method, are used. The independent distances of the pulsars are estimated using an empirical relation of the& between the radio luminosity L of the pulsars and their periods P, the rate of change P & . of their periods, and the half width W of their pulses. A map of the electron density distribution in the galactic plane within a ±400 pc layer is provided.

Structure of the magnetic field near the galactic plane

“…To obtain these dependences we have used an averaging method where the center of the averaging region (l; R) or (l; DM) is shifted smoothly along the given coordinates, and the boundaries of the regions are chosen so that within each averaging region, there are a sufficient number of pulsars. The method used here is similar to a method for data processing that we have described in detail elsewhere [16].…”