NEWS: Plasma theory & simulation

An artist's rendering of a neutron star against the black background of space surrounded by a purple accretion disk and ejecting a bright white stream of x-rays from either pole.

Rishabh Datta is recreating celestial X-ray bursts in a lab

Rishabh Datta, a 5th year PhD student who recently defended his thesis, recently published a paper called “Plasmoid formation and strong radiative cooling in a driven magnetic reconnection experiment”. The article, which was an Editor's Suggestion in Physical Review Letters, demonstrated that it's possible to recreate extreme astrophysical evens in a lab. His paper was also featured on the cover of the April issue of Physics of Plasma and was a Research Highlight in Nature Astronomy

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Abhay K Ram, a physics professor at MIT PSFC, smiles as he stands in front of a whiteboard holding a physics textbook.

A new mathematical “blueprint” is accelerating fusion device development

How can plasma physicists harness the power of quantum computers? Abhay K. Ram, a PSFC Principal Research Scientist, and his co-authors Efstratios Koukoutsis, Kyriakos Hizanidis, and George Vahala have an answer in their recently published paper called “Dyson maps and unitary evolution for Maxwell equations in tensor dielectric media”.

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Seed magnetic fields, MIT

How the Universe got its magnetic field

By studying the dynamics of plasma turbulence, MIT researchers are solving one of the mysteries of the origins of cosmological magnetic fields.

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Lucio Milanese, MIT

Turbulence yields to topology

NSE PhD candidate Lucio Milanese expands a theory of turbulence to include both ionized and non-ionized fluids.

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Alex Creely receives Itoh Project Prize

NSE graduate student Alex Creely has received the Kyushu University Itoh Project Prize for his poster “Cross-Machine Validation of TGLF and GENE on Alcator C-Mod and ASDEX Upgrade.” The prize recognizes excellence in doctoral student plasma physics research.

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Alex Creely, MIT

VIDEO: Alex Creely: Bridging the gap between simulation and reality

In his third year at MIT, Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) graduate student Alex Creely has figured out enough about the hot, turbulent plasmas necessary for creating fusion energy that his research has been honored with an Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Award, offered by the Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Technology R&D of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).