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; MT 2013; HT 2014

 
Trinity Term & Summer of 2014

The seminars/group meetings will be on Thursdays at 11:30 in 501 DWB ("the Seminar Room"), except where indicated otherwise below.


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
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


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

Thu 27 Mar
No seminar (Vienna workshop)
Peter Catto leaves
Oxford

Thu 3 Apr
No seminar (Vienna workshop)
Fri 4 Apr
2:00pm
K1/0/85
Culham
The 49th UK Fusion Theory Seminar (contact Eva Havlickova for further info/access to site).
Fulvio Militello (CCFE) --- The challenge of the perpendicular transport in the scrape-off layer, a theoretician's perspective
John Omotani (CCFE) --- Kinetic physics in fluid models: non-local closures and sheath boundary conditions

Thu 10 Apr
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
1) Michael Fox --- BES update
2) Ferdinand van Wyk --- MAST turbulence update
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
1) RSI 81, 10D713 (2010)
PRL 110, 145002 (2013)
NF 54, 042003 (2014)
2) PRL 109, 265001 (2012)
PRL 106, 175004 (2011)
PRL 105, 215003 (2010)


Thu 17 Apr
No seminar (IoP Plasma Physics Conference)


0.
Thu 24 Apr
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Eurofusion progress meeting:
E. Highcock, A. Schekochihin, A. Field, F. Parra, J. Hillesheim, G. Colyer
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
paper drafts available
on request from
E. Highcock, M. Fox,
J. Ball, J. Hillesheim,
G. Colyer

I
Thu 1 May
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Plasma Seminar:
Francesco Califano (Pisa) --- Models and simulations in plasmas: from fluid to kinetic
("Dannato accoppiamento fluido cinetico")
PoP 20 , 112112 (2013)
ApJ 781, L27 (2014)
PoP 20 , 102118 (2013)
Francesco Califano
(Pisa)
Ian Abel
(Princeton)
Bill Dorland
(Maryland)
Fri 2 May
14:00
Sciama LT
Theoretical Physics Colloquium:
Steve Cowley (UKAEA) --- Erupting plasmas: a challenge for theory and fusion power
II
Thu 8 May
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Joseph Parker (Oxford Maths) --- Update on the Vlasov-Poisson problem in Hermite space
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]


Sat 10 May
10:00am
D. Sciama
LT, DWB
(map)
"Saturday Mornings of Theoretical Physics":
Plasmas: the normal form of matter and the key to unlimited energy
1. Felix Parra (Oxford) --- Plasma: what it is, how to make it and how to hold it
2. Alex Schekochihin (Oxford) --- Turbulence: plasma unleashed
3. Steve Cowley (UKAEA) --- Fusion energy: plasma tamed
III
Thu 15 May
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Anthony Field (CCFE) --- Zonal flow measurements with BES and DBS
Greg Colyer (CCFE) --- Zonal flows in ETG
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Francesco Califano
(Pisa)
IV
Thu 22 May
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]


V
Thu 29 May
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Plasma Seminar:
Tomos David (AOPP, Oxford) --- Application of statistical mechanics to geostrophic (Hasegawa-Mima) turbulence?
JFM 554, 433 (2006)
Francesco Califano
(Pisa)
VI
Thu 5 June
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Updates from everyone who has an update to give
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]


VII
Mon 9 June
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Plasma Seminar:
Eliot Quataert (Berkeley) --- The plasma physics of galaxy clusters and (or) accretion disks
MNRAS 413, 1295 (2011)
MNRAS 432, 404 (2013)
Francesco Califano
(Pisa)
Eliot Quataert
(Berkeley)
Tue 10 June
5:00pm
M. Wood
LT
Halley Lecture:
Eliot Quataert (Berkeley) --- How the Universe Evolved from Smooth to Lumpy: the Physics of Galaxy Formation
June 12-13
Culham
Culham PhD Mini-Symposium (details to follow)
VIII
Thu 19 June
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Michael Fox --- Update on BES reconstruction schemes
Greg Colyer --- Update on ETG turbulence
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Michael Barnes arrives
to join plasma group
as Associate Professor.
All rejoice.

Thu 26 June
No seminar (EPS Conference)


Thu 3 July
No seminar (Madrid workshop)


Thu 10 July
No seminar (Madrid workshop)
Anjor Kanekar
(Maryland)

Thu 17 July
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Room is booked if someone wants to organise a meeting, but I won't be there

Anjor Kanekar
(Maryland)

Thu 24 July
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
1) Michael Barnes --- What I have been up to in Texas and what I am up to in Oxford
2) Alex Schekochihin --- Update on EUROfusion-2015
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Anjor Kanekar
(Maryland)

Thu 31 July
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Room is booked if someone wants to organise a meeting, but I won't be there
Anjor Kanekar
(Maryland)

Thu 7 Aug
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
1) George Wilkie (Maryland) --- Update on GK with alphas
2) AOB
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Anjor Kanekar,
George Wilkie
(Maryland)

Thu 14 Aug
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Room is booked if someone wants to organise a meeting, but I won't be there
George Wilkie
(Maryland)

Thu 21 Aug
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Joseph Parker --- Phase-space dynamics in ITG turbulence
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
PRL 111, 175001 (2013)
George Wilkie
(Maryland)

Thu 28 Aug
11:30am
501 DWB
(map)
Plasma Seminar:
Francois Rincon (Toulouse) --- Nonlinear mirror instability
arXiv:1407.4707
Francois Rincon
(Toulouse)

Plasma Seminars Continued: Michaelmas Term 2014