OXFORD PLASMA THEORY GROUP

PLASMA SEMINARS AND GROUP MEETINGS

The style of the seminars will be informal/chaotic/interactive, following the established tradition. The format of the presentations can be a tutorial on a topic of interest, a report on just completed/ongoing/just starting/potentially interesting research projects, a literature review, a lecture by a passing visitor or anything else worthwhile that anyone cares to suggest. The speakers will be interrupted freely and asked to defend themselves. For background reading, only the most relevant or the most recent references are posted; please follow the paper trail from there.

The schedule is subject to change on short notice, but what you see posted here is always up to date; the seminars are also announced via the department's seminar server (group meetings are not). Please email Alex Schekochihin if you would like to receive email updates on these seminars.

"Group meetings to discuss current affairs" will discuss current affairs (ongoing projects, new litearture etc.) as well as feature some presentations that are even more informal than seminars. They are open to all members of the Oxford Plasma Theory Group (which is easy to join). While some expected contributions are pre-announced, everything is TBC and people wishing their work to be discussed can volunteer contributions without prior notice. Unlike for the seminars, there will not be full-spam-list email reminders of the group meetings.

Past seminar database: Autumn 2007; Winter-Spring 2008; Summer 2008; Autumn 2008; HT 2009; TT 2009; Summer 2009; MT 2009; HT 2009; TT 2010; Summer 2010; MT 2010; HT 2011; TT 2011; Summer 2011; MT 2011; HT 2012; TT 2012; Summer 2012; MT 2012

  Hilary Term of 2013

The seminars/group meetings will be on Thursdays at 11:00 am in 501 DWB ("the Seminar Room"), unless otherwise specified below.
Related series: TURBSIM seminars at Culham
Another related series: Astrophysics Brown Bag Seminars


If you know exactly what you are going to do, what is the point of doing it?
Pablo Picasso
It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.
Maynard Keynes
Every line in your calculations ends with "=0". You are not making much progress! Kate Hammett
We don't do the calculation because we don't know the answer, we do it because we have a conscience. Bryan Taylor
Let's change the resolution on the Unknown. Gabe Plunk
Let me put it differently: suppose we had a reactor... Per Helander
Working together takes more than one person. Bill Dorland
We can't do ultraviolence to that square bracket. Ian Abel
 Field lines are forever. Bryan Taylor
  This is not really an ill-posed problem, it is not a problem at all. Paul Dellar
I am just doing mathematics at the moment, but it is mathematics that has some point. Bryan Taylor
The equivalent of God in MAST is MHD, which is global and all powerful. Anthony Field
I've got a fishbone coming up. Tim Horbury
We have crossed all the i's and dotted all the t's. Ian Abel
Let's not jump in front the bandwagon! Anonymous
It's not the triviality, it's the emptiness of it that bothers me. Bryan Taylor
This is a very inefficient way of achieving nothing. François Rincon


Wk Date
 Time & place
 Speaker & Topic
 Background reading
 Visitors in town
during the week

Thu 3 Jan
 No seminar Michael Barnes
(MIT)
Ben Chandran
(U of NH)
joins the Plasma Group
as sabbatical visitor
for HT/TT-2013
0
 Mon 7 Jan
 9:30am
-12:30pm
Fisher Rm
DWB
(map) 		Special Fusion Theory Seminars
(all members of Physics are invited)
 Michael Barnes
(MIT)
Francis Casson
(IPP Garching)
Stuart Hudson
(PPPL)
Nuno Loureiro
(Lisbon)
Sean Oughton
(U of Waikato, NZ)
Felix Parra
(MIT)
Nobumitsu Yokoi
(U of Tokyo)
Tue 8 Jan
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
ITG/PVG instabilities:
1) Fluid equations in a slab, no shear ---> long-wavelength ITG
2) ITG in a slab from GK; recover long-wavelegth result
3) PVG in a slab, no shear
 1) Steve's lecture
on plasma turbulence
PFB 3, 2767 (1991)
(physics of ITG)
PPCF 52, 125001 (2010)
(fluid ITG/PVG with magnetic shear)
2-3) PPCF 54, 055011 (2012)
(see App B)
 
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
 Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Sean Oughton (U of Waikato, NZ) --- MHD turbulence and solar-wind fluctuations		 preprint
Thu 10 Jan
 11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
 Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Ben Chandran (U of New Hampshire) --- Turbulence and the origin of the solar wind 		ApJ 720, 503 (2010)
Fri 11 Jan
 12:00N
501 DWB
(map)
 Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Nobumitsu Yokoi (U of Tokyo) --- Cross helicity effects: turbulence closure, dynamo, and reconnection
 GAFD, PoP (2013) --- preprints
from author on request
J. Turbulence 12, N27 (2011)
PoP 18, 111208 (2011)
I
 Tue 15 Jan
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
ITG/PVG instabilities:
1-3) Finish last week's programme
4) Curvature-driven ITG
(exercise: curvature + PVG --- what happens?)
5) Effect of velocity shear, in a slab, no mag. shear
6) Effect of mag. shear, in a slab, no velocity shear
7) Velocity + mag. shear, in a slab
 4) Greg Hammett's
Winter School-09 lecture
5) PPCF 54, 055011 (2012)
6) PFB 3, 2767 (1991)
7) PPCF 52, 125001 (2010) 		Walter Gekelman
(UCLA)
Hantao Ji
(Princeton)
Nobumitsu Yokoi
(U of Tokyo)
12:30pm
BIPAC
 Astrophysics Brown Bag Seminar:
Ben Chandran (U of New Hampshire) --- Convection and AGN feedback in galaxy-cluster plasmas
Thu 17 Jan
 2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)		 Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Walter Gekelman (UCLA) --- Three-dimensional flux ropes
II
 Mon 21 Jan
 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)
 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Troy Carter (UCLA) --- Life in LA
Young-chul Ghim (KAIST) --- Life in Korea
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
PRL 109, 255001 (2012)

 Troy Carter
(UCLA)
Young-chul Ghim
(KSTAR)
Penny Wu
(U of Delaware)
Nobumitsu Yokoi
(U of Tokyo)
Tue 22 Jan
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
1) Continue working on last week's ITG-PVG programme, especially 4)-5)
2) Landau collision operator (IGA)
3) H-theorem (IGA & AAS)
4) Model and GK collision operators (IGA)
 2-3) Helander 3.1, 3.7-8;
Ch 3 questions
3) IGA's Tome-sec 10.2
This is cool (but optional):
Am. J. Phys. 33, 391 (1965)
4) PoP 15, 122509 (2008)
(sec I-III, Ap B)
Optional:
PoP 1, 3211 (1994)
2:30pm
Conf Rm
DWB
(map) 		Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Penny Wu (U of Delaware) --- Intermittent heating and kinetic simulations 		ApJ 763, L30 (2013)
PoP 20, 012303 (2013)
PRL 109, 195001 (2012)
Thu 24 Jan
 2:00pm
Culham
K1/0/85
 The 41st UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
Hyun-Tae Kim (Imperial) --- Simulation of plasma burn-through in tokamaks and the influence of PFCs
Wayne Arter (CCFE) --- Potential vorticity formulation of compressible magnetohydrodynamics
III
 Tue 29 Jan
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
1) Braginskii theory of collisional transport (IGA)
 Goedbloed and Poedts 3.1-3.3.2
Helander Ch 4
Braginskii's paper

2:15pm
Dobson Rm
AOPP
 Geophysical and Nonlinear Fluid Dynamics Seminar:
Steve Balbus (Oxford Astro) --- Convection and Rotation in the Sun
Thu 31 Jan
 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)
 Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Ben Chandran (U of New Hampshire) --- Incorporating kinetic physics into a two-fluid solar-wind model with turbulence and temperature anisotropy
 		ApJ 743, 197 (2011)
IV
 Tue Feb 5
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
1) Neoclassical distributions functions & evolution of magnetic field --- recap (IGA)
2) Transport equations in GK (IGA) 		 1) IGA's Tome-sec 7.1-7.3
(look at App B)
2) IGA's Tome-sec 8
(work through 8.1-8.2,
incl. App C.1, C.3)

Thu 7 Feb
 2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Jon Hillesheim (CCFE) --- Upcoming measurements of turbulence in MAST with Doppler Back-Scattering System pillaged from NSTX (ideas welcome!)
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
PPCF 53, 105001 (2011)
V
 Tue Feb 12
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
1) Continuation of last week's material
2) Energy flows in GK (IGA)
 2) IGA's Tome-sec 9

Thu 14 Feb
 2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Ian Abel & Alex Schekochihin (Oxford) --- Zonal flows redux
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome] 		arXiv:1208.5970
PRL 107, 115003 (2011)
PPCF 47, R35 (2005)
VI
 Thu 21 Feb
 2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)		 Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Hugo Doyle (Oxford ALP) --- Grid-induced turbulence in laser driven shock wave experiments and magnetic field generation
 Nature 481, 480 (2012)
a new preprint available
from author on request;
see also
NJP 9, 300 (2007)
4:15pm
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
1) Turbulence: K41 & mixing (AAS)
2) MHD turbulence & critical balance (AAS)

 1) AAS notes, Sec 1-2
2) AAS review, Sec 2
JFM 677, 134 (2011)
and refs therein
(or ask Alfred!)
VII
 Tue 26 Feb
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
1) Critically balanced ITG turbulence (AAS)
2) Free energy cascade (AAS)
3) Energy and entropy flows in GK (cont'd) (AAS)
4) Kinetic MHD (AAS) --- optional, time permitting


 1) Theory: PRL 107, 115003 (2011)
Experiment: arXiv:1208.5970
2) PPCF 50, 124024 (2008)
3) IGA's Tome-sec 9, 10
4) AAS notes, Sec 1

11:30am
A Wood
Seminar Rm
 Special ALP Seminar:
Vladimir Fortov (Russian Academy of Sciences) --- Intense shock waves and extreme states of matter
Thu 28 Feb
 No seminar
VIII
 Tue 5 Mar
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
1) Miller equilibria (EGH)
2) Magnetic geometry in GK simulations (EGH)
3) CHEASE (EGH)
 1) PoP 5, 973 (1998)
2) EGH's thesis arXiv:1207.4419
(Chapter 3)
3) Comp. Phys. Comm. 97, 219 (1996)
 Sebastien Fromang
(CEA)
Daniel Verscharen
(UNH)
Federico Mogavero
(ENS, Paris)
 joins the Plasma Group
as undergradute intern
for March-July 2013
Thu 7 Mar
 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 Plasma Theory Group Seminar:
Sebastien Fromang (CEA) --- Outflows from turbulent accretion disks 		arXiv:1210.6664
arXiv:1210.6660
arXiv:1301.0318
9
 Tue 12 Mar
 11:00am
ThPhys 2.2
 Plasma Physics Study Group:
Remaining topics...
1) Kinetic MHD (AAS)
2) Kinetic RMHD from GK, from KMHD and from Braginskii (AAS)
3) MHD stability/energy principle (AAS)
4) MHD instabilities: sausage, kink, KH (AAS)
5) Tearing mode (AAS)
6) Magnetic reconnection (AAS)
7) Plasmoid instability and plasmoid reconnection (AAS)
8) Collisionless tearing mode (AAS)
Sebastien Fromang
(CEA)
Daniel Verscharen
(UNH)
Thu 14 Mar
 2:00pm
Culham
K1/0/85
 The 42nd UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
Daniel Verscharen (UNH) --- Kinetic instabilities driven by alpha particles in the solar wind
Filomena Nave (IST, Lisbon) --- Spontaneous Rotation in the JET Tokamak

18-29 Mar
 Fusion Theory Working Groups Meeting, WPI, Vienna
Daniel Verscharen
(UNH)

Trinity Term of 2013