Synchrotron emission from anisotropic disordered magnetic fields

Abstract

We derive expressions for the total and linearly-polarized synchrotron emissivity of an element of plasma containing relativistic particles and disordered magnetic field which has been sheared or compressed along three independent directions. Our treatment follows that given by Matthews & Scheuer (1990) in the special case of a power-law electron energy spectrum. We show that the emissivity integrals depend on a single parameter, making it straightforward to generate one-dimensional look-up tables. We also demonstrate that our formulae give identical results to those in the literature in special cases.