Speaker
Description
It is generally believed that the magnetic dynamo in galaxies is a key factor in amplifying small cosmic seed fields to the strengths observed today, both within galaxies and in the CGM/IGM. While simulations with MHD have generally shown modest changes of the overall star formation, magnetic fields are a key factor in the propagation of cosmic rays and their effect on the cloud-scale physics remains to be explored in greater detail. However, the results of MHD simulations of galaxies are notoriously sensitive to small-scale dynamo contributions and to numerical issues such as the zero-divergence constraint, which has led to some notable contradictions in the literature. I will present a systematic comparison of the galactic dynamo in AGORA-type simulations with different MHD codes and solvers. By zooming deep into particular regions of a galaxy and into cosmological boxes, we hope to understand how magnetic fields change the small-scale collapse of clouds and the larger-scale fields in the IGM. At the Thinkshop, my goal is to learn from (and connect with) researchers in the areas that affect, or are affected by, magnetic fields, such as ISM turbulence and cosmic ray feedback.
