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arXiv · 2601.20982

Properties of Polarized Radio Sources in the Wide Chandra Deep Field South from 2 to 4GHz

Abstract

We present a study of the linear polarization properties of radio sources within the 10 deg$^2$ Wide Chandra Deep Field South (W-CDFS) in S-band (2-4 GHz). Our W-CDFS image has an angular resolution of 15 arcsec and a 1$\sigma$ RMS in Stokes $I$ of $\approx$50 $\mu$Jy/beam. We detect 1920 distinct source components in Stokes $I$ and 175 in linear polarization. We examine the polarized source counts, Faraday Rotation measures, and fractional polarization of the sources in the survey. We show that sources with a total intensity above $\approx$10mJy have a mean fractional polarization value of $\approx$3% from modeling the polarized counts. We also calculate an estimate for the limit on the fractional polarization level of sources with a total intensity below 1mJy (mostly star-forming galaxies) of $\stackrel{<}{_{\sim}}$3% using stacking. The mean Faraday Rotation we measure is consistent with that due to the Milky Way. We also show that fractional polarization is correlated with in-band spectral index, consistent with a lower mean fractional polarization for the flat-spectrum population. In addition to characterizing the S-band polarization properties of sources in the W-CDFS, this study will be used to validate the shallower, but higher angular resolution S-band polarimetric information that the VLA Sky Survey will provide for the whole sky above Declination -40 degrees over the next few years.

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Samantha Adams, Mark Lacy, Preshanth Jagannathan, Jose Afonso, William Nielsen Brandt, B. M. Gaensler, Evanthia Hatziminaoglou, Anna Kapinska, Josh Marvil, Hugo Messias, Steve Myers, Ray Norris, Kristina Nyland, Wiphu Rujopakarn, Nick Seymour, Mattia Vaccari, Rick White. 2026-01-28. Properties of Polarized Radio Sources in the Wide Chandra Deep Field South from 2 to 4GHz. https://doi.org/10.3390/universe12020038

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