Zeeman effect in sulfur monoxide: A tool to probe magnetic fields in star forming regions

2017

[Context] Magnetic fields play a fundamental role in star formation processes and the best method to evaluate their intensity is to measure the Zeeman effect of atomic and molecular lines. However, a direct measurement of the Zeeman spectral pattern from interstellar molecular species is challenging due to the high sensitivity and high spectral resolution required. So far, the Zeeman effect has been detected unambiguously in star forming regions for very few non-masing species, such as OH and CN.