A radio study of the flat spectrum component in CTB 80
Polarization data obtained from high resolution radio observations of the compact, flat spectrum core of CTB 80 allow the extraction of information on the magnetic field and thermal plasma. The magnetic field direction projected onto the plane of the sky that is derived from the average rotation measure reveals a component that runs tangentially along the southern and western periphery of the radio plateau. The thermal density suggested by the depolarization rate is sufficient, if the plasma has a temperature of several million deg, to account for the X-ray emission detected by the Einstein Observatory. Attention is given to the possible nature of a small scale feature near the edge of the radio plateau, which agrees in position with the brightest radio peak.