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; HT 2013; TT & Summer 2013

Autumn/Michaelmas Term of 2013

The seminars/group meetings will be on Thursdays at 11:00 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. Job's a good'un. Ian Abel
Let's not jump in front of 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
We Hankel all the way in and then Hankel all the way out. Joseph Parker
For fairness' sake, let me mention that some people have objections to this,
none of which is particularly valid. Chris Chen


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

Thu 5 Sept
 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)
 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
G. Colyer --- Update on MAST ETG turbulence simulations
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]


Tue 10 Sept
 11:00am
2.2 TP		 Plasma Physics Study Group
MHD instabilities using the energy principle (AAS)
1) Sausage & kink
2) Stability of theta pinch
3) Interchange
 AAS Part III notes:
1) L05-sec 12
Sturrock Sec 15
2) L05 Exam, Q2
3) L05, Ex. Sheet 2, Q1
Kulsrud Sec 7.3
Thu 12 Sept 2:00pm
Culham
HOW Rm
 The 46th UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
Eva Havlickova (CCFE) --- Modelling the effect of the Super-X Divertor in MAST
Ian Chapman (CCFE) --- Current understanding of pedestal and ELM stability

16-19 Sept
 17th International Spherical Torus Workshop, York
Tue 17 Sept 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Joseph Parker (OCIAM) --- SpectroGK: a fully spectral astrophysical gyrokinetic code (and what is to be done with it)
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome] 		1) arXiv:1004.0279
2) draft paper
available from author
on request

23-26 Sept
 15th European Fusion Theory Conference, Merton College, Oxford
Tue 24 Sept
 1:30pm
Merton
Grove 1.8
 Plasma Physics Study Group
Buoyancy/interchange instabilities: physical mechanism (AAS)		 Kulsrud Sec 7.3.1
Explore astro texts
Thu 26 Sept 11:15am
Merton
Grove 1.8
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Discussion of BES measurements, simulations and related things
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Tue 1 Oct
 1:00pm
2.2 TP
 Plasma Physics Study Group
Parker instability (AAS)
 Kulsrud Sec 7.3.2
Parker's paper:
ApJ 145, 811 (1966)
 Felix Parra
joins TP & Worcester C.
as UL in Plasma Physics

Justin Ball joins
the Plasma Group
as DPhil student
(adviser F. Parra)

Thu 3 Oct 11:45am
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Michael Fox --- Summary of the York ST wotkshop
Felix Parra --- What I am up to
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
0
 Thu 10 Oct
 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Alfred Mallet --- Detailed critical balance in MHD turbulence
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome] 		draft paper
available on request
David McHardy joins
as MPhys student
(adviser A. Schekochihin)
I
 Mon 14 Oct
 2:00pm
D. Sciama LT
 Astrophysics Colloquium:
Anvar Shukurov (Newcastle): Magnetic fields in the multi-phase interstellar medium

 Anvar Shukurov
(Newcastle)
Thu 17 Oct 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
1) Colin Roach & Anthony Field --- Plans for multiscale simulations and BES analysis (in anticipation of the EFDA deadline for 2014)
2) AOB
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
II
 Tue 22 Oct
 11:00am
2.2 TP
 Plasma Physics Study Group
Interchange without gravity in a magnetised cylinder (AAS)
 Kulsrud Sec 7.3.3
++search the lit.!
(Freidberg etc.)
 Chris Reynolds
(Maryland)
5:00pm
M. Wood LT
 Hinze Lecture
Chris Reynolds (Maryland) --- The role of black holes in galaxy evolution
Thu 24 Oct 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Chris Reynolds (Maryland) --- Future plans for research in the plasma astrophysics of intracluster medium at Maryland
Edmund Highcock & Ferdinand van Wyk --- Report on our trip to Cadarache (or "How to spend two weeks in Southern France productively")
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
III
 Tue 29 Oct
 11:00am
2.2 TP
 Plasma Physics Study Group
Interchange without gravity in a magnetised cylinder --- cont'd (AAS)

Thu 31 Oct 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Discussion of phase mixing in ITG turbulence
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome] 		PRL 111, 175001 (2013)
IV
 Tue 5 Oct
 11:00am
2.2 TP
 Plasma Physics Study Group
1) Interchange without gravity in a magnetised cylinder --- finish! (AAS)
2) Felix's list of topics for the transfer exam

 2) Viva-2013 topics
 The Second Coming
of Felix Parra
Thu 7 Nov
 11:30am
501 DWB
(map)		 Plasma Group Seminar
Jon Hillesheim (CCFE) --- DBS measurements of turbulence on MAST
V
 Tue 12 Nov
 11:00am
2.2 TP
 Plasma Physics Study Group
Ballooning mode in a periodic-mirror equilibrium ("bumpy torus") (AAS)
 Freidberg-MHD, Sec 10.4
Thu 14 Nov 11:30am
501 DWB
(map)		 Plasma Group Seminar
Justin Ball (Oxford) --- The ARC reactor
and
Axisymmetric stability of up-down asymmetry
 Justin's
Master's thesis
VI
 Tue 19 Nov
 11:00am
2.2 TP
 Plasma Physics Study Group
Ballooning mode cont'd (JBT)
 JBT's notes
(Sec 18-21)
Thu 21 Nov 11:30am
501 DWB
(map)		 No seminar unless someone organises one. The room is booked for that possibility.
VII
 Thu 28 Nov 2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)		 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Alex Schekochihin:
---Report on Vlasovia-2013
---Stochastic advection, phase mixing, and Landau damping in a collisionless plasma
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Fri 29 Nov

 Culham
 Plasma Diagnostics Study Group
SXR measurements (ARF)
 Anthony's
Reading List
2:00pm
Culham
K1/0/85
 The 47th UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site).
Justin Ball (Oxford) --- Up-down asymmetric tokamaks
Felix Parra (Oxford) --- Modelling intrinsic rotation
VIII
 Thu 5 Dec
 12:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 No seminar unless someone organises one. The room is booked for that possibility.

Fri 6 Dec
 11:00am
Culham
K1/0.34a
 Plasma Diagnostics Study Group
Reflectometry (JH)		 Jon's
Reading List
9
 Tue 10 Dec
 11:00am
2.2 TP
 Plasma Physics Study Group
Tearing mode (AAS)
 AAS Part III notes:
1) L05-sec 16
2) Ex. Sheet 2, Q4
(do it before looking at the solution!)
3) Without const-psi approximation:
Nuno Loureiro's thesis has
a nice exposition of this 		Matt Kunz
(Princeton)
Nuno Loureiro
(IST, Lisbon)
2:30pm
501 DWB
(map)
 Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
David Dickinson (CCFE) --- Collisionless microtearing
Nuno Loureiro (IST Lisbon) --- Microtearing in a box
...followed by general microtearing discussion
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
Thu 12 Dec 11:30am
501 DWB
(map)		 Plasma Theory Seminar
Matt Kunz (Princeton) --- From plasma microphysics to global dynamics in clusters of galaxies, radiatively inefficient accretion flows, and the solar wind
(including new results on the nonlinear firehose and mirror instabilities and kinetic MRI)  

10
 Thu 19 Dec 11:00am
501 DWB
(map)		 No seminar unless someone organises one. The room is booked for that possibility.


Thu 26 Dec
 No seminar. Merry Xmas! (or whatever other reason for festivities you have)

Thu 2 Jan
 No seminar. Happy New Year!

Seminars in Hilary Term 2014