Parkes observations for project P996 semester 2018OCTS_05

Brief description

We propose to measure the polarisation of ~200 pulsars (~100 this semester) using the Ultra-Wideband Low (UWL) receiver to investigate the structure of the Galactic disk magnetic field in and between distant spiral arms. Previous Parkes pulsar observations have revealed field reversals in nearby arm and interarm regions. We wish to exploit the greater sensitivity of the UWL receiver to extend this to more distant regions, thereby allowing us to distinguish more clearly between different models for the structure of the disk field. This work will have important implications for theories for the generation of Galactic magnetic fields and for other areas, e.g., cosmic-ray physics, which depend on a knowledge of the large-scale Galactic magnetic field for their interpretation.