Noémie  Globus

 

​I am an astrophysicist at the Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. 

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My research focuses on the stage of the violent, high-energy universe and its invisible actors: magnetic fields, cosmic rays, and neutrinos. 

 

These non-thermal components govern some of the most extreme phenomena in astrophysics, yet they remain among the least understood. For example, we still do not understand the structure of black holes and neutron stars magnetospheres, and how relativistic jets form. The Event Horizon Telescope imaged the relativistic plasma orbiting the central six-billion-solar-mass M87* black hole revealing the base of the jet itself in the now iconic image. While these observations suggest that black hole spin powers relativistic jets via the Blandford–Znajek mechanism, they do not clarify the plasma's nature or the energy transport pathways, even though jets from active galactic nuclei, AGN, critically influence galaxy evolution, star formation, and produce some of the brightest emission observed across the electromagnetic spectrum, and are potentially associated with high energy cosmic rays and neutrinos. In gamma-ray bursts, GRB, relativistic jets appear in a completely different astrophysical setting. GRBs are short-lived but extremely energetic events, where jets are launched during catastrophic phenomena such as the collapse of massive stars or the merger of compact objects. The association of both long and short GRBs with relativistic jets has been firmly established, most notably by the multi-messenger detection of GW170817. These events provide a unique laboratory to study jet physics under extreme, rapidly evolving conditions, complementing the study of jets in AGNs and tidal disruption events, TDE.  

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To advance our understanding of these phenomena, I actively participate in several international collaborations that tightly integrate theoretical and observational approaches:

 

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I am a co-investigator in the Simons Collaboration on Extreme Electrodynamics of Compact Sources (SCEECS), an international effort, directed by Roger Blandford, dedicated to understanding how matter, radiation, and electromagnetic fields behave under the most extreme conditions in the universe, particularly around black holes and neutron stars. My goal is to elucidate the physics of the central engines of relativistic jets across a broad range of astrophysical environments, including AGN, GRB, and TDE. In collaboration with Roger Blandford, I focus on developing a theoretical framework that emphasizes the role of interchange instabilities and electric zones in black hole magnetospheres, which allows energy to be transported across magnetic field lines rather than predominantly along them. This approach naturally explains how disk winds may be energized and how energy can be efficiently transported from sub-parsec to kiloparsec scales, addressing a major challenge in jet theory.

 

I am also a member of the Telescope Array Collaboration, the largest cosmic-ray observatory in the Northern Hemisphere. The Telescope Array is designed to detect ultra-high-energy cosmic rays—charged particles, such as protons or atomic nuclei with energies exceeding a Joule, far beyond those achievable in terrestrial particle accelerators. Their sources remain unknown: classical astronomy with cosmic rays has long been hindered by the strong deflections experienced by charged nuclei as they traverse the largely unknown intergalactic and Galactic magnetic fields. This limitation was highlighted by the recent detection of the Amaterasu particle—the second highest-energy cosmic ray ever observed—which could not be traced back to its source due to our poor knowledge of the intervening magnetic fields. I am developing an innovative approach to ultra-high energy cosmic-ray astronomy, by analyzing the time structure of cosmic-ray arrivals, to distinguish between continuous and transient sources. I recently completed an Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics on these remarkable particles.

 

In January 2025, I became an official member of the COLIBRÍ telescope team. COLIBRÍ is a robotic, wide-field optical telescope located at the San Pedro Mártir National Astronomical Observatory (OAN–SPM) in Baja California, Mexico. In collaboration with Alan Watson, I am developing an imaging polarimeter for COLIBRÍ, TEQUILA (Transient Events Q, U, and I Light Analyzer). This rapid-response capability enables polarimetric observations of gamma-ray burst afterglows and other optical transients within one minute of an alert, providing direct probes of GRB jet early magnetic fields. TEQUILA will also investigate magnetic activity in relativistic jets more broadly, particularly those associated with high-energy neutrino events, for which I serve as a science program convener within COLIBRÍ. As neutral messengers, neutrinos can escape dense cosmic accelerators and propagate in straight lines to Earth, making them powerful tracers of otherwise hidden sources. ​

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I have recently joined the Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism (POSSUM), a large-scale radio astronomy survey aimed at mapping magnetic fields throughout the Universe. My research interests focus on investigating the turbulent magnetic structure of supernova remnant shells in order to better constrain the physics of diffusive shock acceleration, one of the leading mechanisms responsible for cosmic-ray acceleration. This work aims to establish a strong link between observations and the theoretical and numerical studies developed within SCEECS to advance our understanding of cosmic-ray transport in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.

 

Finally, I conduct interdisciplinary research on the role of cosmic radiation in the emergence of life. The goal is to understand if polarized cosmic radiation can act as a chiral evolutionary pressure and drive the necessary out-of-equilibrium chemistry. We are designing experiments to test this idea at muon beam sources in collaboration with the Origins Institute. I also investigate how nearby supernovae imprint both transient cosmic-ray signatures and long-term effects on Earth.

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