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; TT & Summer 2014; MT 2014; HT 2015;

  Trinity Term & Summer of 2015

The seminars/group meetings will be on Thursday at 11:30 in 501 DWB, 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, 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
 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
You go ahead with your argument. I'll think. Steve Cowley


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

Mon 23 Mar
13:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Alex Schekochihin --- Update on ITG turbulence in phase space
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Antoine Cerfon
(NYU)

Thu 2 Apr
No group meeting


Mon 6 Apr
11:30
501 DWB
Room is booked, but I won't be there. Please self-organise!

Wed 8 Apr
11:00
Culham
Adams Rm
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Ferdinand van Wyk & Michael Fox --- MAST GS2 simulations and BES comparisons


Thu 16 Apr
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Michael Fox & Ferdinand van Wyk --- MAST GS2 simulations and BES comparisons cont'd
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Lorenzo Stipani
(U di Pisa)
joins the group
as visting MSc student
(adviser A. Schekochihin)
0
Thu 23 Apr
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Edmund Highcock --- Update on ITER/JET transport modeling
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Cary Forest
(UW Madison)
I
Thu 30 Apr
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Filomena Nave --- Lower-hybrid effects on plasma rotation
Justin Ball --- Summary of TCV shaping experiments
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
for Justin's talk:
NF 37, 1741 (1997)
Cary Forest
(UW Madison)
II
Tue 5 May
14:30
Fisher Rm
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Gianluca Gregori (Oxford ALP) --- Planned plasma dynamo experiments on Omega and NIF
...followed by discussion (S. Balbus, A. Bell, S. Cowley, C. Forest, M. Kunz, S. Sarkar, A. Schekochihin)
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
Nature Phys. 10, 520 (2014)
preprint of another paper
available from GG
on request
Cary Forest
(UW Madison)
Matt Kunz
(Princeton)
Chris Chen,
Lorenzo Matteini
(Imperial)
Thu 7 May
11:30
501 DWB
Plasma Seminar:
Cary Forest (UW Madison) --- Prospects for observing the magnetorotational instability in the Plasma Couette Experiment
arXiv:1409.8233
published JPP version
III
Thu 14 May
11:30
501 DWB
Room is booked, but nothing is planned. Please self-organise!
Matt Kunz
(Princeton)
IV
Thu 21 May
11:30
501 DWB
Plasma Seminar:
Stuart Bale (UC Berkeley) --- Electron heat flux in the solar wind:  transition from classical to collisionless
ApjL 769, L22 (2013)
Stuart Bale
(UC Berkeley)
Cary Forest
(UW Madison)
V
Thu 28 May
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Cary Forest
(UW Madison)
Fri 29 May
16:15
M. Wood LT
Physics Colloquium:
Cary Forest (UW Madison) --- Chasing fast dynamos in the plasma lab
VI
Thu 4 June
11:30
501 DWB
Plasma Seminar:
Justin Ball (Oxford) --- Scaling of up-down asymmetric momentum flux with poloidal effects in tokamaks

Cary Forest
(UW Madison)

Marek Strumik
joins the group
as M. Curie Fellow
VII
Thu 11 June
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Marek Strumik will introduce himself and talk about past work and future plans
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Cary Forest
(UW Madison)
VIII
Thu 18 June
11:30
501 DWB
Plasma Seminar:
Cary Forest (UW Madison) --- Instability, turbulence, and 3D magnetic reconnection in a line-tied, zero net current screw pinch
PRL 114, 145001 (2015) Cary Forest
(UW Madison)
9
22-26 June
42nd EPS Plasma Conference, Lisbon


Thu 25 June
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]


Thu 2 July
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Felix Parra and Justin Ball --- News and views from the EPS Lisbon Meeting
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]



Thu 9 July
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]



Tue 14th July
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Sergey Nazarenko (Wawick) --- Tutorial on mean-field theory for zonal flows
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]
Phys. Fluids 6, 1158 (1994)
Bill Dorland
(Maryland)
Sergey Nazarenko
(Warwick)

Matias Janvin
joins the group
as summer intern
(advisers M. Barnes & F. Parra)


20-31 July
8th Plasma Kinetics Working Group Meeting, Vienna


Thu 6 Aug
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
Ferdinand van Wyk --- Simulated MAST ion-scale turbulence: update
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Bill Dorland
(Maryland)

Thu 13 Aug
No seminar


Thu 20 Aug
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]

Bill Dorland
(Maryland)

Thu 27 Aug
11:30
501 DWB
Group meeting to discuss current affairs:
...
[everything TBC; unannounced contributions welcome]



Autumn/Michaelmas Term of 2015