Seminars Trinity Term & Summer of 2022

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. "Plasma group meetings (or journal clubs)" 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. 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. The seminars and group meetings are organised by Michael Barnes and Alex Schekochihin, please contact them with any queries or if you wish to present something.

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; TT & Summer 2015; MT 2015; HT 2016; TT & Summer 2016; Autumn/MT 2016; HT 2017; TT & Summer 2017; Autumn/MT 2017; HT 2018; TT & Summer 2018; MT 2018; HT 2019; TT & Summer 2019; MT 2019; HT 2020; TT & Summer 2020; MT 2020; HT 2021; TT & Summer 2021; Autumn/MT 2021; HT 2021;

Trinity Term & Summer of 2022

The seminars/group meetings will be on Tuesday at 14:00 in the Simpkins Lee Room, Beecroft Building, except where indicated otherwise below, in red.
It will be possible to join these meetings (when they are held in SL Room) on ZOOM --- details available from Alex on request.
Those who join these meetings on ZOOM are asked keep their video cameras on.
The ZOOM system in Simpkins Lee Room does not display a list of participants whose cameras are off. It is not germane to these informal meetings to have invisible listeners of whom those present in the room are unaware, so if you are unable or unwilling to turn on your camera, you cannot join the meeting.
Here is a list of all Physics seminars.

If you know exactly what you are going to do, what is the point of doing it? Pablo Picasso
He goeth furthest who knows not whither he is going. Oliver Cromwell

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
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
We have crossed all the i's and dotted all the t's. Job's a good'un. Ian Abel
Let us not jump in front of the bandwagon! Alex Schekochihin
It's not the triviality, it's the emptiness of it that bothers me. Bryan Taylor
Never take 0 for an answer. Alex Schekochihin
This is a very inefficient way of achieving nothing. François Rincon
For the sake of fairness, let me mention that some people have objections to this, none of which are particularly valid. Chris Chen
This is more or less right. Perhaps less. Alfred Mallet
Too simple? At the end of my talk, you will beg for simplicity! Andrey Beresnyak
What is the point? The point is not the point! Anonymous
This is why I am presenting this here and nowhere else: nothing is solved! Ian Abel
Previous studies of this problem have been either unsatisfactory or limited in scope.---What is the difference between these?---This means either wrong or irrelevant. Anatoly Spitkovsky, Michael Medvedev & Steve Cowley (in conversation)

I don't give a damn about astrophysics, explain to me what is going on. Anatoly Spitkovsky

It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong. Carveth Read (usually attributed to Maynard Keynes)

Have you subtracted the baby with the bathwater? Steve Balbus
This is not rigour, unless you mean rigor mortis. Ian Abel
I wouldn't say these are theoretical arguments... Let's just call them arguments. François Rincon
This qualitative explanation is not of sufficient quality. Eugene Churazov
If you mean it seriously, this is actually a very good question. Minhyong Kim
This paper is a tour de farce. Ian Abel
What is modelling? You run a simulation, you compare. If it coincides, great! If it doesn't coincide, fuck! Felix Parra
I have seen papers where the student wasn't the problem. Michael Hardman
There has been a lot of fascinating work on this subject, most of it kind of boring. Philipp Kempski
So now you want us to drop everything we are doing and start worrying about what the big questions are?! Ian Abel
Oh dear, I thought I had some conclusions. Nuno Loureiro
I've got my little fingers inside this plasma. Steve Cowley
Words will play a big role in this talk. Dmitri Uzdensky
Everything that can be done should be done---and that's the astrophysical attitude. Michael Medvedev
What I will talk about is not low-hanging fruit. A lot of people have looked at this. There is no fruit here at all.---What about sour grapes? Michael Medvedev & Nuno Loureiro
In order to have a disappointment, you first have to have an appointment. Alex Schekochihin
In our experiment, we observed strong absence of magnetic energy. Archie Bott
Much as I somewhat hate this approach... Peter Davidson
Your infinity is my zero. Mantas Abazorius
If I had known the outcome of this calculation, I would never have done it. Michael Hardman

Now that everyone knows this is the new Pandora's box, they are all going to jump into it. François Rincon

[these quotes are mostly from these seminars and the Vienna meetings]

Wk	Date	Time & place	Speaker & Topic	Background reading	Visitors in town
0	Tue 19 Apr	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting/Journal Club (organised by ALEX) Open mic. We ended up discussing the Masui & Di Siena papers (presented by Juan Ruiz and Toby Adkins).	Masui et al. NF preprint + arXiv:2204.05651
0	Thu 21 Apr	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Vladimir Zhdankin (Flatiron) --- Generalized entropy production in nonthermal collisionless plasmas	arXiv:2110.07025 arXiv:2203.13054
I	Tue 26 Apr	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting/Journal Club (organised by ALEX) Juan Ruiz Ruiz --- Report from the TTF Meeting Toby Adkins, Javier Maurino-Alperovich, Silvia Trinczek --- Report from the Sherwood Meeting Yujia Zhang --- Summary of Rath & Peeters PoP 29, 042305 (2022) "Transport hysteresis in electromagnetic microturbulence caused by mesoscale zonal flow pattern-induced mitigation of high beta turbulence runaways"
I	Thu 28 Apr	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Michael Barnes (Oxford) --- Bistable turbulence in tokamak plasmas	arXiv:2109.07757
II	Tue 3 May	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Journal Club (organised by ALEX) David Hosking will lead the discussion of Liu et al. "First-principles theory of the rate of magnetic reconnection...", arXiv:2203.14268
II	Thu 5 May	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Brian Reville (MPIK) --- Extremely shocking limits---the maximum energy particles at astrophysical shocks
III	Tue 10 May	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX) Samriddhi Sankar Ray (ICTS, Bangalore) --- Many-body chaos in thermalised fluids Solutions of finite-dimensional projections of ideal (inviscid) hydrodynamical equations, which thermalise at long times, are at odds with the (singular) behaviour of the parent partial differential equations and the dissipative (weak) solutions that accompany them. In this talk, we address how the Galerkin-truncated three-dimensional, incompressible Euler equation thermalises and show how such thermalised fluids serve as a perfect Hamiltonian model for obtaining the thermal bound on chaos in classical many-body systems [1]. We end by an explicit construction of a numerical recipe for obtaining dissipative solution, by suppressing thermalisation, in such Galerkin-truncated systems [2]. This leads to some hope for a new route to revisit conjectures of finite-time blow-ups within the framework of direct numerical simulations.	[1] PRL 127, 124501 (2021) [2] PRR 2, 033202 (2020)	Matt Kunz (Princeton) Samriddhi Sankar Ray (ICTS, Bangalore)
III	Thu 12 May	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Erika Ye (MIT) --- Quantum-inspired methods for solving the Vlasov-Poisson equation	arXiv:2205.11990
IV	Mon 16 May	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM	ALP Seminar (organised by ALEX) Carolyn Kuranz (Michigan) --- Creating Astrophysical Conditions in the Laboratory		Matt Kunz (Princeton) Carolyn Kuranz (Michigan)
	Tue 17 May	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX) Matt Kunz (Princeton) --- Microscale constraints on macroscale physics: waves, turbulence, and reconnection	JPP 86, 905860603 (2020) ApJ 922, L35 (2021) JPP 88, 905880210 (2022)
	Thu 19 May	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Mark Sherlock (LLNL) --- Overview of plasma transport processes relevant to Inertial Confinement Fusion at the National Ignition Facility
V	24-25 May	Cosener House	TDoTP Management Board and Annual Technical Review Meeting		Ben Chandran (UNH) Jean-Baptiste Fouvry (IAP)
V	Thu 26 May	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Shinya Maeyama (Nagoya U) --- Cross-scale interactions between ion and electron-scale turbulence in magnetized plasmas		Ben Chandran (UNH) Jean-Baptiste Fouvry (IAP)
VI	30-31 May	Nottingham	Royal Society Meeting on "Turbulent dissipation in space plasmas"		Ben Chandran (UNH)
	Tue 31 May	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by MICHAEL) Plamen Ivanov --- Update on including mean flow shear in a reduced model of curvature-driven ITG turbulence	background: arXiv:2203.02769
	Thu 2 June	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Elizabeth Wolfrum (IPP Garching) --- The road to pedestal tailoring at ASDEX Upgrade
VII	Tue 7 June	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Robbie Ewart & Michael Nastac --- Impressions from the Nottingham conference Open mic		Ben Chandran (UNH)
VII	Thu 9 June	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Alex Schekochihin) Bill Dorland (Maryland) --- Prospects for real-time, first-principles transport simulations and stellarator optimization including turbulence		Ben Chandran (UNH)
VIII	Tue 14 June	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Denis St-Onge --- Thoughts on parallel boundary conditions for low-magnetic-shear scenarios
	Thu 16 June	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Archie Bott (Princeton) --- Turbulence and thermodynamics in expanding, collisionless, magnetised plasma	ApJ 922, L35 (2021)
	16-17 June	9:30-12:30	Oxford Astro@Home Meeting (organised by Rob Fender)
9	Tue 21 June	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Plamen Ivanov and Toby Adkins --- Generalised plasma dispersion functions
9	Thu 23 June	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Piero Martin (U of Padua) --- Status of the Divertor Tokamak Test facility
10	Tue 28 June	14:00 Freeman Room	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Javier Maurino-Alperovich --- Intrinsic rotation and current drive with and without up-down asymmetry		Steve Cowley (Princeton) Luis Silva (IST Lisbon)
10	Thu 30 June	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Derek Schaeffer (Princeton) --- Collisionless shockwaves in magnetized high-energy-density laboratory plasmas		Steve Cowley (Princeton) Luis Silva (IST Lisbon)
	Mon 4 July	15:30 Freeman Room	Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX) Romain Meyrand (U of Otago) --- Basic properties of reflection-driven Alfven-wave turbulence	background: ApJ 707, 1659 (2007)	Romain Meyrand (Otago) Luis Silva (IST Lisbon) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Thu 7 July	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Alice Harding (LANL) --- Plasma physics of pulsar magnetospheres
	Tue 12 July	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Seminar (organised by ALEX) Jon Hillesheim (UKAEA) --- Results from recent JET T and DT experiments		Luis Silva (IST Lisbon) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Thu 14 July	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Rachael McDermott (IPP Garching) --- Validation of low-Z impurity transport theory using boron perturbation experiments in ASDEX Upgrade		Luis Silva (IST Lisbon) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Tue 19 July	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Alsu Sladkomedova (TE Ltd) --- BES measurements of coherent structures and zonal flows in MAST	preprint on request	Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Thu 21 July	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Martin Lemoine (IAP) --- Particle acceleration in turbulent plasmas: colourising the Fermi picture	arXiv:2206.08380	Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	25 July -5 Aug	WPI Vienna	13th Vienna Meeting		Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Tue 26 July	No meeting
	Thu 28 July	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Ami Dubois (NRL) --- Compressed current sheets in the magnetotail: importance of the ambipolar electric field
	Denis St-Onge "officially" leaves the group, in search of greener pastures in North America
	Tue 2 Aug	No meeting			Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Thu 4 Aug	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Jon Hillesheim (UKAEA) --- Highlights of T and DT results from JET-ILW experiments		Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Tue 9 Aug	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Alsu Sladkomedova (TE Ltd) --- BES measurements of coherent structures and zonal flows in MAST --- Part II Zonal flows.	preprint on request	Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Thu 11 Aug	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Anne White (MIT) --- Turbulence and transport research beyond the burning-plasma era		Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Tue 16 Aug	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by MICHAEL HARDMAN) Filomena Nave (IST, Lisbon) --- Isotope scalings in Ohmic JET discharges	background: PRL 125, 015001 (2020)	Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Thu 18 Aug	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Scott Baalrud (Michigan) --- Exploring novel properties of strongly magnetised plasmas		Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Tue 23 Aug	14:00 SL Room & ZOOM (ask Alex for link)	Plasma Group Meeting (organised by ALEX) Terry Rhodes (UCLA) --- Inter-ELM turbulence and flow dynamics		Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)
	Thu 25 Aug	16:00 ZOOM (sign up to get link)	JPP Frontiers of Plasma Physics Colloquium (organised by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin) Jack Halliday (Imperial) --- Investigating radiatively driven, magnetised plasmas with a university-scale pulse-power generator		Terry Rhodes (UCLA) Valerian Chen (ASTAR)

Autumn/Michaelmas Term of 2022