Speaker
Description
It is well-established that radio continuum provides both an unobscured tracer of star formation as well as a window into the magnetic field strength in galaxies. In this context, understanding the injection and propagation of cosmic rays (CR) in the interstellar medium, and how these process couple to star formation activity — as well as a galaxy’s star formation history — is crucial to completing the picture of galactic feedback processes.
Low-frequency radio observations provide a unique view onto the non-thermal ISM of galaxies, tracing aged CR electrons and diffuse synchrotron emission that are largely inaccessible at GHz frequencies. However, it is only through the union of different instruments across the radio and optical/UV/IR windows that we can explore the injection and propagation of CR associated with star formation.
In this vein, the MWA’s broad spectral coverage and unique sensitivity to low surface brightness emission, combined with higher-frequency observations from ASKAP and MeerKAT, provides unparalleled information into the non-thermal component of the ISM of nearby galaxies. In this talk, I will present several recent and upcoming highlights from the MWA in several nearby and well-resolved galaxies. I will discuss how these observations shape our understanding of the connection between the thermal and non-thermal components of the ISM, how star formation activity couples to the magnetic field, as well as what we can learn about the transport of CR in the ISM.