Parkes observations for project P996 semester 2019OCTS_02

Brief description

We propose to measure the polarisation of distant southern pulsars (distance>5kpc)
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.
Because of the intrinsic uncertainty in DM-based pulsar distances, averaging data over groups
of pulsars is necessary to confidently demonstrate any magnetic-field reversals.
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.