THE MAGNETIC-FIELDS IN THE GALACTIC-CENTER - DETECTION OF H-I ZEEMAN SPLITTING

We have used the Very Large Array to search for Zeeman splitting of H I absorption against Sgr A West in order to measure directly the magne tic held strength along the line of sight. We report several detection s within the circumnuclear molecular gas about 1' north of Sgr A. Our results show that the magnetic field is preferentially pointed toward us in this region with our most reliable detection being -3.0 +/- 0.5 mG. The highest detected fields appear to be associated with infallin g gas rather than the circumnuclear disk itself. We suggest that the a verage line-of-sight component of the held within the circumnuclear di sk as traced by the H I gas is less than 1 mG.