The LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project
  Measuring radio waves at low frequencies offers a new window to study cosmic
magnetism, and LOFAR is the ideal radio telescope to open this window widely.
The LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project (MKSP) draws together expertise from
multiple fields of magnetism science and intends to use LOFAR to tackle
fundamental questions on cosmic magnetism by exploiting a variety of
observational techniques. Surveys will provide diffuse emission from the Milky
Way and from nearby galaxies, tracking the propagation of long-lived cosmic-ray
electrons through magnetic field structures, to search for radio halos around
spiral and dwarf galaxies and for magnetic fields in intergalactic space.
Targeted deep-field observations of selected nearby galaxies and suspected
intergalactic filaments allow sensitive mapping of weak magnetic fields through
Rotation Measure (RM) grids. High-resolution observations of protostellar jets
and giant radio galaxies reveal structures on small physical scales and at high
redshifts, whilst pulsar RMs map large-scale magnetic structures of the
Galactic disk and halo in revolutionary detail. The MKSP is responsible for the
development of polarization calibration and processing, thus widening the
scientific power of LOFAR.
