Seminars Trinity Term 2013

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

Trinity Term and Summer 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

Wk	Date	Time & place	Speaker & Topic	Background reading	Visitors in town during the week
	18-29 Mar	6th Gyrokinetics Working Group Meeting, WPI, Vienna			Daniel Verscharen (UNH)
	Thu 4 Apr	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: Alex Schekochihin (Oxford) --- Life in Hermite space ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]	PoP 18, 102309 (2011) arXiv:1301.0338 ApJS 182, 310 (2009) (sec 6.2)
	8-12 Apr	Stability, Energetics and Turbulent Transport in Astrophysical, Fusion and Solar Plasmas, Princeton
0	Thu 18 Apr	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Jean Perez (UNH) --- Alfven turbulence and heating in coronal holes	ApJ 707, 1659 (2009) ApJ, 736, 3 (2011)	Jean Perez (UNH)
I	Thu 25 Apr	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: Greg Hammett (Princeton) --- What I would like us to think about while I am in Oxford (TBC) Greg Colyer (CCFE) --- (1) TTF summary report; (2) Results from the ITG-ETG CBC parameter scan ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]		Henrik Latter (DAMTP, Cambridge) Jean Perez (UNH) Greg Hammett (Princeton) joins Plasma Group as sabbatical visitor
I	Thu 25 Apr	5:00pm South School, Exam Schools	Savilian Professor Inaugural Lecture: Steve Balbus (Oxford Astro) --- Turning in the Widening Gyre: Accretion Processes in the Universe
II	Thu 2 May	2:00pm Culham K1/0/85	The 43rd UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site). Greg Hammett (Princeton) --- Thoughts about ways to improve confinement for fusion devices Ben Dudson (York) --- Progress towards gyrofluid edge simulations with neutral gas
III	Thu 9 May	11:30am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Geoff Vasil (UC Berkeley) --- New ideas in stellar magnetism, and the magnetorotational instability		Geoff Vasil (UC Berkeley)
IV	Thu 16 May	9:15am Culham HOW Rm	CCFE Physics Meeting: Tom Bird (Greifwald) --- The response of ion-scale turbulence to 3D flux surface deformations Daniela Grasso (Torino) --- Transport barriers to magnetic field line motion during a reconnection event		Tom Bird (IPP Greifswald)
		10:00am Culham K1/0/85	Special ELM dynamics/mitigation meeting at Culham: Colin Roach --- Modelling the interELM pedestal evolution Howard Wilson --- ELM trigger and nonlinear ELM dynamics including energy loss mechanisms Ian Chapman --- Effect of RMPs on ELM s - can we understand ELM mitigation/suppression and can we extrapolate to ITER Andrew Kirk --- Small ELM regimes - what makes a grassy ELM or type II ELMS and why do they remove type I ELM
		8:00pm Lindemann LT	Oxford University Physics Society: Alex Schekochihin (Oxford TP) --- A turbulent world (and what happens if you spin it)
	Fri 17 May	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: Michael Fox --- New results on sheared turbulence in MAST ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]	PRL 110, 145002 (2013) arXiv:1211.2883
V	Mon 20 May	2:00pm Sciama LT	Astrophysics Colloquium: Ben Chandran (UNH) --- The origin of the solar wind		Tom Bird (IPP Greifswald) Ben Chandran (UNH) finishes his sabbatical stay
	Thu 23 May	9:30am HOW Rm JET	Special Presentation at JET: Francesco Romanelli (EFDA Director) --- European Fusion Road Map
	Thu 23 May	11:30am Pease Rm Culham	Plasma Theory Group Seminar (contact Greg Colyer for further info/access to site) Tom Bird (IPP Greifswald) --- Gyrokinetic turbulence in nonaxisymmetric geometry	NF 53, 013004 (2013)
VI	Thu 30 May	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Christopher Haynes (Queen Mary) --- Reconnection and electron temperature anisotropy in electron scale plasma turbulence	arXiv:1304.1444 ApJ 730, 114 (2011)	David Burgess, Christopher Haynes (Queen Mary)
VII	Tue 4 June	11:30am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Steve Cowley (U.K.A.E.A.) --- Explosive behaviour in plasmas	Phys Rep 283, 185 (1997)
VII	Thu 6 June	2:00pm Culham K1/0/85	The 44th UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site). Tony Arber (Warwick) --- Solar chromospheric MHD Anthony Webster (CCFE) --- The statistics of edge-localised plasma instabilities: evidence for temporal resonances
VIII	Thu 13 June	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Gabor Szepesi (Warwick) --- The role of light impurities in turbulent transport in core tokamak plasmas	NF 53, 033007 (2013)	Gabor Szepesi (Warwick)
9	Thu 20 June	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group Plasma waves: unmagnetised (IGA)	Standard textbook material (e.g., books by Stix or Swanson)	Greg Hammett (Princeton) finishes his sabbatical stay
	Tue 25 June	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Chris Chen (Berkeley) --- The nature of subproton-scale turbulence in the solar wind	arXiv:1305.2950	Chris Chen (Berkeley)
	Thu 27 June	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group Plasma waves: unmagnetised cont'd, cold (IGA)	Standard textbook material (e.g., books by Stix or Swanson)	Chris Chen (Berkeley)
	Tue 2 July	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group Plasma waves: cold cont'd (IGA)	Standard textbook material (e.g., books by Stix or Swanson)	Jeff Parker (Princeton)
	Tue 2 July	3:00pm A. Wood Seminar Rm	Atomic and Laser Physics Seminar: John Foster (AWE) --- Astrophysically-relevant hydrodynamics experiments using lasers
	Wed 3 July	11:30am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Jeff Parker (Princeton) --- Zonal flow as spontaneous symmetry breaking of homogeneous turbulence	arXiv:1301.5059
	Thu 11 July	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: TBA ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
	Thu 18 July	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: We will, amongst other things discuss plans for Maryland collaborations ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]		The Maryland contingent: Bill Dorland, Anjor Kanekar, George Wilkie, Noah Mandell, Hannelore Gerling-Dunsmore arrive this week Eliot Quataert (Berkeley)
	Tue 23 July	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Special mini-workshop on zonal flows and ITG-ETG plasma turbulence (organised by Greg Colyer) Moto Nakata (JAEA) --- Nonlinear entropy transfer processes via zonal flows in plasma turbulence Bill Dorland (Maryland) --- Zonal flows & secondary instabilities redux		Jonathan Citrin (DIFFER) Young-chul Ghim (KAIST) Tim Horbury (Imperial) Motoki Nakata (JAEA)
	Wed 24 July	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group 1) Plasma waves: magnetised hot (IGA) 2) KAW-IBW conversion and cyclotron resonance (AAS)	1) Standard textbook material (e.g., books by Stix or Swanson) 2) arXiv:0707.3147 (read Appendix A)
	Thu 25 July	2:00pm Culham K1/0/85	The 45th UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Sarah Newton for further info/access to site). Motoki Nakata (JAEA) --- Nonlinear entropy transfer processes via zonal flows in plasma turbulence (Part 2) Bill Dorland (Maryland) --- Update on activities of the Maryland group
	Thu 1 Aug	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: Progress on action items decided at our meeting 2 weeks ago: ---Alpha particles (G. Wilkie, I. Abel, E. Highcock) ---Transport modeling (W. Dorland, N. Mandell, E. Highcock) ---Kinetic passive scalar (A. Kanekar, A. Schekochihin) ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]		Ian Abel and Federico Mogavero leave Oxford
	Tue 6 Aug	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group Kinetic MHD and CGL equations (AAS)	1) SWIFF Notes, Sec 1 (do the exercise at the end) 2) historic classics: two Kulsrud reviews and the CGL paper posted here 3) Heseltine & Waelbroek has a section on KMHD
	Thu 8 Aug	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: Progress review on Maryland collaborations: ---Alpha particles (G. Wilkie, E. Highcock) ---Transport modeling (W. Dorland, N. Mandell, E. Highcock) ---ITG/ETG (G. Colyer) ---MAST turbulence real and numerical (F. van Wyk, M. Fox, A. Field, E. Highcock) ---Kinetic passive scalar (A. Kanekar, A. Schekochihin) ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
	Tue 13 Aug	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group 1) CGL equations reviewed (AAS) 2) Firehose and mirror instabilities (AAS) 3) Exercise: Kinetic RMHD from KMHD (AAS) 4) Exercise: RMHD from Barginskii (AAS)	2) SWIFF Notes, Sec 2 (also see papers 1-3 posted there for firehose theory) 3) PPCF 49, A195 (2007) (from GK: see Tome sec 5) 4) Tome App A
	Thu 15 Aug	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: Final progress review on Maryland collaborations ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]		The Maryland contingent leave
	Tue 20 Aug	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group Lagrangian MHD, action principle for MHD (AAS)	1) AAS Part III notes: L05-sec 10 2) W. A. Newcomb, Nucl. Fusion: 1962 Supplement, Part 2, p. 451	Matt Kunz (Princeton)
	Thu 22 Aug	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Plasma Theory Group Seminar Matt Kunz (Princeton) --- Magnetic self-organisation in Hall-dominated magnetorotational turbulence	arXiv:1306.5887	Matt Kunz (Princeton)
	Tue 27 Aug	11:00am 2.2 TP	Plasma Physics Study Group Energy principle for MHD (AAS)	1) AAS Part III notes: L05-sec 11 2) Proc Roy Soc A 244, 17 (1958)
	Thu 29 Aug	11:00am 501 DWB (map)	Group meeting to discuss current affairs: 1) M. Fox --- Update on MAST BES: sheared eddies, maximum-entropy data deconvolution, etc. 2) E. Highcock --- Update on the "Zero-Turbulence-Manifold" in JET (last summer's data redux) 3) A. Schekochihin --- ITG turbulence with shear: scaling theories (summary of possibilities) ... [everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]	1) PRL 110, 145002 (2013) copy of Michael's report available from author on request 2) arXiv:1211.2883 PRL 109, 265001 (2012)