Jennifer West (Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics - University of Toronto)

Searching for helical magnetic fields in the Milky Way Galaxy

ARRC (Kensington WA) Auditorium, remotely from Marsfield.

Abstract

The origin and 3D structure of magnetic fields on galactic scales is an unsolved mystery. Leading theoretical models of large-scale galactic magnetic fields come from dynamo theory, which predicts the presence of helicity in these fields. In this talk, I will describe a possible observational signature of helicity in the Milky Way magnetic field that relies on polarization data from large scale radio surveys.

I will also discuss the Canadian Initiative for Radio Astronomy Data Analysis (CIRADA). CIRADA is a new project that will take basic data products from large scale radio surveys such as those from ASKAP, VLASS, and CHIME, and create new enhanced data products, which will be made accessible to the scientific community via sophisticated digital databases.