OXFORD PLASMA THEORY GROUP
THE LEVERHULME TRUST INTERNATIONAL NETWORK ON MAGNETISED PLASMA TURBULENCE

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.

Financial support for those coming from outside Oxford is available: travel will be paid by the Leverhulme Network grant. If a guest room is required in Oxford, this can be arranged, although might prove difficult if requested on short notice. The grant can also support overseas visitors --- suggestions about whom to invite are welcome.

"Group meetings to discuss current affairs" will discuss current affairs (ongoing projects, new litearture etc.). 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;

Michaelmas Term 2011

The seminars/group meetings will start at 14:30 in 501 DWB ("the Seminar Room"), unless otherwise specified below.
For the Culhamites: there is a train from Culham to Oxford at 14:01.
Related series: TURBSIM seminars at Culham


Wk Date
Time & place
Speaker & Topic
Background reading
Visitors in town
during the week
(see schedule below)

Thu 22 Sept
4:00pm
501 DWB
(map)
1) Greg Howes (Iowa) --- Kinetic turbulence in space and astrophysical plasmas:
theoretical, numerical, and experimental investigations

2) Russell Kulsrud (Princeton) --- Petschek reconnection
PRL 107, 035004 (2011)
PoP 17, 022105 (2010)
arXiv:1106.4327
Greg Howes,
Jason TenBarge
(Iowa)
Russell Kulsrud
(Princeton)

Thu 29 Sept
2:00pm
Culham
The 29th UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
Per Helander (IPP Greifswald) --- On optimised stellarators
Steve Fitzgerald (CCFE) --- Modelling dislocations in anisotropic crystals
Per Helander
(Greifswald)
0
Thu 6 Oct
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]


I
10-12 Oct
JET,
Culham
13th H-Mode Workshop at JET
Paola Mantica
(IFP-CNR, Milan)
Jan Weiland
(Chalmers)
Mon 10 Oct
11:30am
Atomic and Laser Physics Seminar:
Don Lamb (FLASH) --- FLASH code and its applications to high-energy-density plasmas
Thu 13 Oct
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Paola Mantica (IFP-CNR, Milan) --- Ion heat transport studies in JET
PRL 107, 135004 (2011)
+ preprint (pdf, 1.4Mb)
II
Thu 20 Oct
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Chris Ridgers (Oxford/ALP) --- QED effects in laser-solid interactions
PRL 101, 200403 (2008)
PRL 106, 035001 (2011)
PPCF 51, 085008 (2009)
Jan Weiland
(Chalmers)
III
Thu 27 Oct
4:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Young-chul Ghim (Oxford/TP) --- Measurements of toroidal and poloidal plasma flow velocity with 2D BES on MAST.
preprint from author,
on request
Jan Weiland
(Chalmers)
IV
Tue 1 Nov
3:30pm
Sciama LT,
DWB
Special Astrophysics Colloquium:
Steve Balbus (ENS, Paris) --- Unravelling the problem of solar rotation
Steve Balbus
(ENS, Paris)
Emmanuel Dormy
(ENS, Paris)
Jan Weiland
(Chalmers)
Thu 3 Nov
2:00pm
Culham
The 30th UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
John Lonnroth (JET) --- Predictive modelling of the sensitivity of edge transport barrier performance
Raoul Trines (RAL) --- Channelling, filamentation and bubble formation in laser-driven nuclear fusion
V
Thu 10 Nov
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Brian Reville (Oxford/ALP) --- A filamentation instability for streaming cosmic rays
arXiv:1109.5690
Jan Weiland
(Chalmers)
VI
Thu 17 Nov
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Paola Mantica
(IFP-CNR, Milan)
Jan Weiland
(Chalmers)
VII
Thu 24 Nov
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Edmund Highock --- Update on critical thresholds for PVG turbulence
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

arXiv:1111.4929

VIII
Thu 1 Dec
2:00pm
Culham
The 31st UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
Alexey Mishchenko (IPP Greifswald) --- Gyrokinetic PIC simulations of global MHD instabilities
Nathalie Tronko (Warwick) --- Higher-order Hamiltonian guiding center theory
Alexey Mishchenko
(IPP Greifswald)
9
Fri 9 Dec
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Peter Davidson (Cambridge) --- Energy decay laws in rotating, stratified and MHD turbulence
JFM 564, 455 (2006)
JFM 632, 329 (2009)
JFM 651, 295 (2010)
JFM 663, 268 (2010)
Peter Davidson
(Cambridge)
10
Thu 15 Dec
No seminar
Chris Chen
(Berkeley)

Thu 22 Dec



Chris Chen
(Berkeley)

Thu 29 Dec
No seminar
Chris Chen
(Berkeley)

Fri 6 Jan
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]



Fri 13 Jan
3:30pm
501 DWB
(map)



I

Tue 17 Jan
2:15pm
Dobson Rm,
AOPP
AOPP Seminar:
Steve Tobias (Leeds) --- TBA
Steve Tobias
(Leeds)
Thu 19 Jan
2:00pm
Culham
K1/0/85
The 32nd UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
Yueqiang Liu (CCFE) --- TBA
Joseph Parker (Oxford) --- TBA

II
Thu 26 Jan
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)



III
Thu 2 Feb
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
Richard Kerswell (Bristol) --- <Tutorial on subcritical turbulence in shear flows>, TBC

Richard Kerswell
(Bristol)
Sergey Komarov
(MIPT, Moscow)
IV
Mon 6 Feb
2:15pm
Sciama LT,
DWB
Astrophysics Colloquium:
Eugene Churazov (MPA, Garching) --- TBC
Eugene Churazov
(MPA, Garching)
Sergey Komarov
(MIPT, Moscow)
Mateusz Ruszkowski
(Michigan-Ann Arbor)
Tue 7 Feb
12:30pm
BIPAC
Conf Rm,
DWP
Astrophysics Theory Brown Bag Seminar:
Mateusz Ruszkowski (U of Michigan, Ann Arbor) --- TBC

Thu 9 Feb
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)


V
Thu 16 Feb
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)



VI
Thu 23 Feb
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)



VII
Thu 1 Mar
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)



VIII
Thu 8 Mar
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)



9
Thu 15 Mar
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)




19-30 Mar
4th Fusion Theory Working Group Meeting, WPI, Vienna 19-31 March 2012

31 Mar-3 Apr
Sherwood Meeting


Hilary Term 2012