Seminars Hilary Term of 2024

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. "Plasma group meetings (or journal clubs)" 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. The seminars and group meetings are organised by Michael Barnes and Alex Schekochihin, please contact them with any queries or if you wish to present something.

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; HT 2017; TT & Summer 2017; Autumn/MT 2017; HT 2018; TT & Summer 2018; MT 2018; HT 2019; TT & Summer 2019; MT 2019; HT 2020; TT & Summer 2020; MT 2020; HT 2021; TT & Summer 2021; Autumn/MT 2021; HT 2021; TT & Summer 2022; Autumn/MT 2022; HT 2023; TT & Summer 2023; Autumn/MT 2023;

Hilary Term of 2024

The seminars/group meetings will be on Tuesday at 14:00 in the Simpkins Lee Room, Beecroft Building, except where indicated otherwise below, in red.
It will be possible to join these meetings (when they are held in SL Room) on ZOOM --- details available from Alex on request.
Those who join these meetings on ZOOM are asked keep their video cameras on.
The ZOOM system in Simpkins Lee Room does not display a list of participants whose cameras are off. It is not germane to these informal meetings to have invisible listeners of whom those present in the room are unaware, so if you are unable or unwilling to turn on your camera, you cannot join the meeting.
Here is a list of all Physics seminars.

If you know exactly what you are going to do, what is the point of doing it? Pablo Picasso
He goeth furthest who knows not whither he is going. Oliver Cromwell

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
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
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! Alex Schekochihin
It's not the triviality, it's the emptiness of it that bothers me. Bryan Taylor
Never take 0 for an answer. Alex Schekochihin
This is a very inefficient way of achieving nothing. Francois Rincon
For the sake of fairness, let me mention that some people have objections to this, none of which are particularly valid. Chris Chen
This is more or less right. Perhaps less. Alfred Mallet
Too simple? At the end of my talk, you will beg for simplicity! Andrey Beresnyak
What is the point? The point is not the point! Anonymous
This is why I am presenting this here and nowhere else: nothing is solved! Ian Abel
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 & Steve Cowley (in conversation)

I don't give a damn about astrophysics, explain to me what is going on. Anatoly Spitkovsky

Have you subtracted the baby with the bathwater? Steve Balbus
This is not rigour, unless you mean rigor mortis. Ian Abel

I wouldn't say these are theoretical arguments... Let's just call them arguments. Francois Rincon

This qualitative explanation is not of sufficient quality. Eugene Churazov

If you mean it seriously, this is actually a very good question. Minhyong Kim

This paper is a tour de farce. Ian Abel

It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong. Carveth Read (usually attributed to Maynard Keynes)

What is modelling? You run a simulation, you compare. If it coincides, great! If it doesn't coincide, fuck! Felix Parra
I have seen papers where the student wasn't the problem. Michael Hardman
There has been a lot of fascinating work on this subject, most of it kind of boring. Philipp Kempski
So now you want us to drop everything we are doing and start worrying about what the big questions are?! Ian Abel
Oh dear, I thought I had some conclusions. Nuno Loureiro
I've got my little fingers inside this plasma. Steve Cowley
Words will play a big role in this talk. Dmitri Uzdensky
Everything that can be done should be done---and that's the astrophysical attitude. Michael Medvedev
What I will talk about is not low-hanging fruit. A lot of people have looked at this. There is no fruit here at all.---What about sour grapes? Michael Medvedev & Nuno Loureiro
In order to have a disappointment, you first have to have an appointment. Alex Schekochihin
In our experiment, we observed strong absence of magnetic energy. Archie Bott
Much as I somewhat hate this approach... Peter Davidson
Your infinity is my zero. Mantas Abazorius
If I had known the outcome of this calculation, I would never have done it. Michael Hardman

Now that everyone knows this is the new Pandora's box, they are all going to jump into it. Francois Rincon
We must think outside the axisymmetric box. Georgia Acton

This is not real, it's a Platonic absolute.---The real thing is more Platonic and more absolute. Alex Schekochihin & Anthony Field
All I've done here is sacrificed equality in favour of inequality. Per Helander
Generally, it depends. Steve Majeski
This numerical scheme works fine, but it is physically disgusting. Bruno Despres
This research is not only not finished, it has not really been started. Anatoly Spitkovsky
This is what really matters... given that "really matters" is a strong word in this context. Robbie Ewart
This was discovered accidentally, but it was an informed accident. Plamen Ivanov
Infinity is a long way away. Rafael Bailo
To solve the kinetic equation on a mesh, you really need to know what you are doing.
That's why, historically, people haven't. Rafael Bailo

[these quotes are mostly from these seminars and the Vienna meetings]

Wk	Date	Time & place	Speaker & Topic	Background reading	Visitors in town
0	Tue 9 Jan	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX) Andrew Mummery (Oxford) --- Kinematics of MHD flows near black holes	MNRAS 521, 2439 (2023) PRL 129, 161101 (2022)	Valerian Chen (A*STAR)
I	Pablo Bilbao (IST, Lisbon) arrives to Oxford to work with G. Gregori's group (till May)				Elijah Kolmes (Princeton)
I	Tue 16 Jan	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Seminar (organised by NICK LOPEZ) Elijah Kolmes (Princeton) ---- Bounds on phase-space rearrangements	PRE 102, 063209 (2020) PRE 106, 055209 (2022)	Elijah Kolmes (Princeton)
II	Tue 23 Jan	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Barry Ginat (Oxford) --- Hierarchical dark-matter structure formation (a tutorial)	ApJ 176, 1 (1972) MNRAS 262, 627 (1993) Phys Rep 733, 1 (2018)
III	Tue 30 Jan	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by MICHAEL) Open mic
IV	Tue 6 Feb	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Plamen Ivanov, Robert Ewart & Michael Nastac --- Report on Vlasovia-2024
V	Tue 13 Feb	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX) Rafael Bailo (Oxford Maths) --- Collisional particle-in-cell method for the Vlasov-Maxwell-Landau Equations	arXiv:2401.01689
VI	Tue 20 Feb	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ARCHIE) Prakriti Pal Choudhury (Oxford) --- Modelling macroscopic free-energy sources in ICM/CGM (Chapman-Enskog) plasma	MNRAS 485, 3430 (2019) arXiv:2310.17754
VII	Tue 27 Feb	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX) 1) Michele Romanelli (TE Ltd) --- Overview of the latest results of Tokamak Energy's ST40 reactor Following the achievement in 2022 of record ion-temperatures, ST40 has been enhanced with a new Thomson Scattering system, new bolometer, improved ECE system and several other new diagnostics. These, along with reduction of in vessel passive currents and development of an advanced control system has allowed to establish robust, well diagnosed double-null divertor scenarios for the study of H-mode confinement scaling, development of high beta plasmas, characterization of SOL and power loads on divertor target. This presentation will review the latest results and outline plans for future experiments aimed at progressing Tokamak Energy's exploration of the ST reactor physics basis. 2) Laura Zhang (TE Ltd) --- Statistical analysis of the scrape-off-layer power drop-off width in the ST40 high field spherical tokamak	1) NF 63, 054002 (2023) PPCF 61, 035006 (2019) NF 63, 016024 (2023) NF 63, 036018 (2023) PPCF 65, 095012 (2023) PPCF 65, 075007 (2023) 2) NF 60, 056016 (2020)
VIII	Mon 4 Mar	11:30 SL Room	ALP Seminar (organised by ARCHIE) Eleanor Tubman (Imperial) --- [Laser-plasma experiments on collisionless shocks]		Eleanor Tubman (Imperial)
VIII	Tue 5 Mar	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) James Binney (Oxford) --- Normal modes of collisionless systems	MNRAS 507, 2241 (2021) MNRAS 507, 2562 (2021)	Eleanor Tubman (Imperial)
9	Gabriele Celebre (U of Calabria) joins the group work with Alex, Robbie and Michael Nastac (for 4 months)
9	Tue 12 Mar	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Open mic: Georgia Acton, Will Clarke, Yujia Zhang	draft papers available from authors on request; arXiv:2403.12621
10	Tue 19 Mar	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Gabriele Celebre (U of Calabria) --- Phase space dynamics of unmagnetised plasmas: collisionless and collisional regimes	PoP 30, 092304 (2023)	Chris Hamilton (IAS)
	Tue 26 Mar	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Jun Lau (UCL) --- Justifying the principle of maximum entropy	arXiv:2310.04508
	Tue 2 Apr	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Journal Club (organised by JUAN) We discussed (led by Leo Turica), "Internally driven beta-plane plasma turbulence using the Hasegawa-Wakatani system" by O. Gurcan	arXiv:2403.09911
	Tue 9 Apr	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by JUAN) Open mic + Robbie Ewart --- CR confinement in radio bubbles by micromirrors (update on a preprint just out)	arXiv:2404.05110

Trinity Term of 2024