The Orion-Taurus ridge: A synchrotron radio loop at the edge of the Orion-Eridanus superbubble

Abstract

Large-scale synchrotron loops are recognized as the main source of diffuse radio-continuum emission in the Galaxy at intermediate and high Galactic latitudes, yet their origin remain unexplained. For the first time, using a combination of multi-frequency data in the radio band of total and polarized intensities, we were able to associate one arc, hereafter, the Orion-Taurus ridge, with the wall of the most prominent stellar-feedback blown shell in the Solar neighborhood, namely, the Orion-Eridanus superbubble. We traced the Orion-Taurus ridge using 3D maps of interstellar dust extinction and column-density maps of molecular gas, NH2. We found the Orion-Taurus ridge at a distance of 400 pc, with a plane-of-the-sky extent of 180 pc. Its median NH2 value is (1.4−0.6+2.6) × 1021 cm−2. Thanks to the broadband observations below 100 MHz of the Long Wavelength Array (LWA), we were also able to compute the low-frequency spectral-index map of synchrotron emissivity, β, in the Orion-Taurus ridge. We found a flat distribution of β with a median value of −2.24−0.02+0.03, which we interpreted in terms of depletion of low-energy (< GeV) cosmic-ray electrons in recent supernova remnants (105–106 yr). Our results are consistent with plane-of-the-sky magnetic-field strengths in the Orion-Taurus ridge greater than a few tens of μG (> 30 − 40 μG). We report the first detection of diffuse synchrotron emission from cold-neutral, partly molecular gas in the surroundings of the Orion-Eridanus superbubble. This observation opens a new perspective for studies of the multiphase and magnetized interstellar medium with the advent of future high-sensitivity radio facilities, such as the C-Band All-Sky Survey (C-BASS) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).