When: Friday, October 7, 2022, 2:30 PM - 3:30 PMWhere: Physics (G. O. Jones building) room 610 & online
Speaker: Kate Pattle (UCL)
Interstellar Magnetic Fields: From Star Formation to Galaxy Evolution
Recent advances in submillimetre dust emission polarimetry are revolutionizing our understanding of the magnetic fields which thread the interstellar media of the Milky Way and other galaxies. In this talk I will discuss the insights which we are gaining into the energy balance, dynamics and evolution of the magnetized interstellar medium, on size scales ranging from nearby star-forming regions to the disc and superwind of the starburst galaxy M82, from recent observations made with the POL-2 polarimeter on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). I will particularly discuss how we can infer the dynamic importance of magnetic fields from observations of magnetic field geometries in the dense interstellar medium, and the emerging evidence for how the interaction between magnetic fields, outflows and feedback may influence star formation efficiency on both small and large scales.