Abstract
Speaker: Greg Madsen
Title: Magnetic Fields in Nearby HII Regions
Abstract: Magnetic fields pervade interstellar space and are involved in a number of important astrophysical processes. Significant progress has been made recently in quantifying interstellar magnetism in a range of environments. However, many detection techniques depend on various assumptions in order to infer properties of the field. We report on new Faraday rotation measurements toward several nearby HII regions that enable us to measure their line-of-sight magnetic field with minimal uncertainties. We quantify the average field and its variation within the HII regions, and discuss the implications of our results on the nature of HII regions and the large-scale Galactic field.