Cluster magnetic fields through the study of polarized radio halos in the SKA era

Galaxy clustersare unique laboratories to investigate turbulent fluid motions and large scale magnetic fields. Synchrotron radio halosat the center of merging galaxy clustersprovide the most spectacular and direct evidenceof the presence of relativistic particlesand magnetic fields associated with the intracluster medium. The study of polarized emission from radio halosis extremely important to constrain the properties of intracluster magnetic fields and the physics of the acceleration and transport of the relativistic particles. However, detecting this polarized signal is a very hard task with the current radio facilities.We use cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations to predict the expected polarized surface brightnessof radio halosat 1.4 GHz. We compare these expectations with the sensitivity and the resolution reachable with the SKA1. This allows us to evaluate the potential for studying intracluster magnetic fields in the surveys planned for SKA1.