NEWS: Plasma theory & simulation

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

Unearthing a quantum Rosetta Stone for plasma physicists

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”.

MIT News

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.

PSFC News

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.

PSFC News

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.

PSFC

plasma reconnection

Study sheds light on turbulence in astrophysical plasmas

Most of these plasmas, including the solar wind that constantly flows out from the sun and sweeps through the solar system, exist in a turbulent state. MIT's Loureiro and Boldyrev have proposed a new model to explain these dynamic turbulent processes.

MIT News

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).

Probing the magnetic universe

Loureiro marvels at how pervasive magnetic fields are, evident not only in planets and the interplanetary medium, but beyond the heliosphere to the interstellar, galactic, intergalactic and intercluster media. But how were these fields generated, and how did they come to have the structure and magnitude they have today?

PSFC

Nuno Loureiro: In search of a more perfect fusion reactor

What drew Loureiro to plasma physics, he says, was energy. “If one is not naïve about today’s world and today’s society, one has to understand that there is an energy problem. And if you’re a physicist, you have the tools to try and do something about it.”

MITEI Energy Futures

Nathan Howard receives INCITE leadership computing award

A multi-institutional team consisting of Plasma Science and Fusion Center research scientist Nathan Howard, Chris Holland (University of California, San Diego) and Jeff Candy (General Atomics), has received a prestigious INCITE leadership computing award.

PSFC