Identifying the Radio Bubble Nature of the Microwave Haze

Abstract

Using seven-year data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, I identify a sharp "edge" in the microwave haze at high southern Galactic latitude (-55° < b < -35°) that is spatially coincident with the southern edge of the "Fermi haze/bubbles." This finding proves conclusively that the edge in the gamma rays is real (and not a processing artifact), demonstrates explicitly that the microwave haze and the gamma-ray bubbles are indeed the same structure observed at multiple wavelengths, and strongly supports the interpretation of the microwave haze as a separate component of Galactic synchrotron (likely generated by a transient event) as opposed to a simple variation of the spectral index of disk synchrotron. In addition, combining these data sets allows for the first determination of the magnetic field within a radio bubble using microwaves and gamma rays by taking advantage of the fact that the inverse Compton gamma rays are primarily generated by scattering of cosmic microwave background photons at these latitudes, thus minimizing uncertainty in the target radiation field. Assuming uniform volume emissivity, I find that the magnetic field within the southern Galactic microwave/gamma-ray bubble is ~5 μG above 6 kpc off of the Galactic plane.