Physics Department Colloquia |
Events During the Week of April 25th through May 2nd, 2010
Monday, April 26th, 2010
- No events scheduled
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
- No events scheduled
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
- No events scheduled
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
- No events scheduled
Friday, April 30th, 2010
- Plasma Turbulence in the Solar Wind
- Time: 4:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
- Speaker: Bill Dorland, University of Maryland
- Abstract: Gyrokinetics is a first principles theory for the dynamics and thermodynamics of magnetized, ionized gas. It has been developed over the last three decades, primarily in the magnetic confinement fusion community, where it is widely used to interpret observations and to design experimental devices and operational scenarios. Gyrokinetic simulations of instabilities and turbulence in hot, rarefied plasma have been tested carefully in these laboratory settings. Recently, gyrokinetic ideas and codes have been successfully used to interpret observations of turbulent fluctuations in the solar wind. While magnetohydrodynamics remains the appropriate theory for {it dynamics} in larger, truly astrophysical plasmas (such as galaxy cluster plasmas), the appropriate framework for the study of many interesting thermodynamic processes in astrophysics (such as turbulent heating and transport) is gyrokinetics. Example applications will be shown.
- Host: Forest