From the Torus to Cosmic Dawn: Magnetic Fields, Dust, and a New Astronomy Program at USC
Speaker: Dr. Enrique Lopez Rodriguez
Affiliation: University of South Carolina
Date: September 24, 2026
Abstract:
Magnetic fields are a pervasive but poorly quantified component of galaxy evolution. Over the past two years at USC, I have built a research program that measures them across two axes: 1) depth, from the dense parsec-scale dusty torus around a supermassive black hole to the diffuse disk of a galaxy, and 2) cosmic time, from well-resolved nearby systems to the first billion years after the Big Bang. I use polarimetry spanning six decades in wavelength, from Hubble and JWST to SOFIA, ALMA, and the VLA.
I will present several key results that define the program. Using JWST aperture-masking
interferometry, we resolved and imaged the dusty disk obscuring the black hole in
the Circinus galaxy. A proof of concept now scaled into a 112-hour JWST Cycle 5 survey
of 16 active galaxies. Two companion studies test the foundations of the method itself:
the first spatially resolved measurement of grain-alignment physics in another galaxy
(M51), and a single-author result showing that a claimed polarization signal in PAH
emission does not exist. Finally, ALMA Grade A observations now in hand target the
most distant galactic magnetic field yet measured, ~800 Myr after the Big Bang, bearing
directly on the origin of cosmic magnetism.
I will close with the program's second output: undergraduates and graduate students
who become peer-reviewed first authors within 18-24 months, and the implementation
of the new Astronomy & Astrophysics concentration launching this fall.