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. 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; HT 2013; TT & Summer 2013; MT 2013; HT 2014; TT & Summer 2014; MT 2014; HT 2015; TT & Summer 2015; MT 2015; HT 2016; TT & Summer 2016; Autumn/MT 2016

 
Hilary Term of 2017

The seminars/group meetings will be on Thursday at 11:30 in 501 DWB, except where indicated otherwise below.
Note also the ALP Seminars (here is a list of all Physics seminars)

This term, the seminars and group meeting are organised by Michael Barnes, Felix Parra and Alex Schekochihin, please contact them with any queries or if you wish to present something.

If you know exactly what you are going to do, what is the point of doing it? Pablo Picasso

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, this 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. Job's a good'un. Ian Abel
Let us not jump in front of the bandwagon! Anonymous
It's not the triviality, it's the emptiness of it that bothers me. Bryan Taylor
It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong. Maynard Keynes
 

This is a very inefficient way of achieving nothing. François Rincon
We Hankel all the way in and then Hankel all the way out. Joseph Parker
For the sake of fairness, let me mention that some people have objections to this, none of which are particularly valid. Chris Chen
Yes, Steve, you have always known what we have only just figured out. Alfred Mallet
This is more or less right. Perhaps less. Alfred Mallet
You go ahead with your argument. I'll think. Steve Cowley
Too simple? At the end of my talk, you will beg for simplicity! Andrey Beresnyak
The point is not the point! Anonymous
This is why I am presenting this here and nowhere else: nothing is solved! Ian Abel
This calculation is not intellectual masturbation: there's no orgasm. Anonymous
There are many big Buts here... I like big Buts. Anonymous
Previous studies of this problem have been either unsatisfactory or limited in scope.---What  is the difference between these?---This means either wrong or irrelevant.
Anatoly Spitkovsky, Michael Medvedev and Steve Cowley (in conversation)
I don't give a damn about astrophysics, explain to me what is going on. Anatoly Spitkovsky
[these quotes are from Oxford plasma seminars and Vienna meetings]

Wk Date
Time & place
Speaker & Topic
Background reading
Comings and goings
(incl. visitors in town)

Thu Jan 5
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX)
Updates from everyone and NY resolutions


0
Thu Jan 12
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX)
George McKee (UW Madison & GA) --- Breaking toroidal symmetry: turbulence and transport response to resonant magnetic perturbations
NF 53, 113011 (2013)
George McKee
(GA)

Michael Fox
leaving Oxford
for greener pastures

I
Thu Jan 19.
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by FELIX)
Routine updates and NY resolutions


II
Thu Jan 26.
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by MICHAEL)
Alessandro Geraldini --- The magnetic presheath solver
arXiv:1608.02002

III
Thu Feb 2
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX)
James Matthews (Oxford ALP) --- Magnetic-field amplification and turbulence driven by cosmic rays


IV
Thu Feb 9.
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by FELIX)
Michael Hardman --- Summary/update on multiscale GK simulations


V
Thu Feb 16.
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by MICHAEL)
Jason Parisi --- Update on ITG turbulence with flow shear
PRL 107, 115003 (2011)

Sat Feb 18
10:15
MWood
LT
Morning of Theoretical Physics: Fluids and Flows
10:15   Refreshments
10:30   Welcome
10:40   Centimetres: Fluids all around us, Prof Julia Yeomans FRS
11:30   Refreshments
12:00   Microns: The bacterial viewpoint, Prof Ramin Golestanian
12:45   Kilometres: Turbulence, Prof Michael Barnes
13:30   Refreshments

VI
Thu Feb 23.
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by FELIX)
TBA


VII
Thu Mar 2
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX)
Tobias Goerler (IPP Garching) --- Lessons learned from Verification & Validation with GENE

Tobias Goerler
(IPP Garching)
VIII

Tue Mar 7
14:00
TBA
Joint Plasma & ALP Seminar/Astor Lecture (organised by GIANLUCA & ALEX)
Dmitri Ryutov (LLNL) --- Using plasma physics to constrain photon mass
The finiteness of the photon mass does not contradict the relativity theory: it just puts the photon on par with other particles, with the limiting propagation velocity still in place. The photon mass, even if finite, is incredibly small, less than 10-24 of the electron mass (a currently accepted upper bound cited in Ref. 1), but even at this value it would have a strong effect on large-scale astrophysical phenomena. Effects of a finite photon mass in electrodynamics can be systematically accounted for by the Proca Lagrangian. This talk will summarize earlier approaches to the evaluating the photon mass and then describe the techniques that have led to the current estimate. These techniques are based on the analysis of the Solar wind dynamics at large distances from the Sun. A possibility to lower the upper bound by studying magnetohydrodynamics of more distant objects is discussed.
PPCF 39, A73 (1997)
PPCF 49, B429 (2007)
PRL 103, 201803 (2009)
RMP 82, 939 (2010)
Dmitri Ryutov
(LLNL)
Wed Mar 8
TBA
Culham
Joint Oxford and Culham Seminar/Astor Lecture (organised by FULVIO MILITELLO)
Dmitri Ryutov (LLNL) --- Geometrical properties of the magnetic field of importance for magnetic divertors in tokamaks
JPP 81, 495810516 (2015)
Thu Mar 9 11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX)
Alessandro Geraldini --- Plasma boundary in tokamaks
PPCF 59, 025015 (2017)
9
Thu Mar 16
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by MICHAEL)
Plamen Ivanov --- Summary of the Nazarenko and Parker papers on how to handle zonal flows (and solitons)
PoF 6, 1158 (1994)
JPP 82, 595820602 (2016)
arXiv:1503.06457



Thu Mar 23.
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Group Meeting (organised by FELIX)
Plamen Ivanov --- Summary of the Nazarenko and Parker papers on how to handle zonal flows (and solitons) --- presentation completed to cover Parker's papers
Peter Catto
(MIT)

Thu Mar 30
11:30
501
DWB
Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX)
Peter Catto (MIT) --- Electromagnetic zonal flow responses

Peter Catto
(MIT)

Ferdinand van Wyk
leaving Oxford
for greener pastures

3-7 Apr
Worcester
College
44th IoP Plasma Physics Conference and MAST-U Research Forum
MAST Forum is 13:30-18:00 on April 6 and 9:00-17:00 on April 7
Justin Ball
(EPFL)
Per Helander
(IPP Greifswald)
Edmund Highcock
(Chalmers)

Thu Apr 13
No seminar


Trinity Term and Summer of 2017