Exploring galactic magnetism

在天文学中，我们试图了解宇宙的起源和演化。我们研究物质如何与引力场和电磁场相互作用。众所周知，引力在宇宙过程中起着巨大的作用。 例如，引力场可以由我们可以看到的物体产生，如恒星，行星，卫星和星系。事实上，正是对引力及其在宇宙中的作用的探索激发了牛顿在物理学领域的许多经典著作。然而，鲜为人知的是，磁场在恒星、星系和其他天体物理系统的演化和结构中也很重要。磁场在这方面可能很重要的事实直到20世纪40年代才被提出。 磁场是由电流产生的，与重力不同，我们既看不到电流，也看不到磁场。 我们所能做的就是寻找两者的微妙影响，并试图推断正在发生的事情。更糟糕的是，我们看到的东西总是很远，我们正在处理的信号很微弱。加拿大银河平面巡天（CGPS）是利用位于不列颠哥伦比亚省南部奥肯那根山谷宁静山丘上的射电望远镜进行的。在那里，七个射电望远镜一起工作，以多种无线电波长对我们的银河系进行成像。CGPS数据对于探测我们银河系的磁场特别有价值。我的研究项目名为“探索银河磁场”，使用来自CGPS和其他几个国际合作伙伴计划的数据来探测银河磁场的结构。我的主要目标是确定银河系磁场的拓扑结构（或形状）。我也在探索磁场如何影响银河系的结构和动力学。从长远来看，这项研究应该有助于我们理解磁场如何影响星系的物理学，以及星系如何演化。

In astronomy, we try to understand the origin and evolution of the cosmos. We study how matter interacts with gravitational and electromagnetic fields. It is common knowledge that gravity plays a huge role in cosmic processes.  For example, a gravitational field can be produced by objects that we can see such as stars, planets, moons, and galaxies. Indeed, it was the quest to understand gravitation and its role in the Universe that motivated much of Newton's classic works in physics. It is much less well known, however, that magnetic fields are also important in the evolution and structure of stars, galaxies, and other astrophysical systems. The fact that magnetic fields might be important in this way was only put forward in the 1940s.  Magnetic fields are produced by electric currents, and unlike with gravity, we can "see" neither the currents nor the field.  All we can do is look for subtle effects of both and try to infer what is happening. This is exacerbated by the fact that what we are looking at is invariably far away, and the signals we are working with are faint. Advancing our knowledge of cosmic magnetic fields is difficult.The Canadian Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS)  is carried out with a radio telescope located in the peaceful hills of the Okanagan Valley in southern British Columbia. There, seven radio telescopes work together to image our Galaxy at multiple radio wavelengths. The CGPS data is particularly valuable for probing the magnetic field of our Galaxy. My research project entitled "Exploring Galactic Magnetism", uses data from the CGPS, and several other international partner programs, to probe the structure of the Galactic magnetic field. My primary objective is to identify the topology (or shape) of the Galaxy's field. I am also exploring how the field affects the structure and dynamics of the Galaxy. In the long run, this research should contribute to our understanding of how magnetic fields affect the physics of galaxies, and possibly how galaxies evolve.