Events at Physics |
Events on Friday, April 30th, 2010
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Joint with Phenomenology
- A Lattice Calculation of QCD Critical Point from Canonical Ensemble
- Time: 2:30 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Keh-Fei Liu, University of Kentucky
- Abstract: At zero chemical potential, the finite temperature transition of QCD is known to be a smooth crossover from lattice simulations. The conjectured first order phase transition and its critical point at finite density is of great theoretical and experimental interest.
I will review the status of the lattice calculation with grand canonical approach and present an algorithm in the canonical approach. The preliminary results on the identification of a first order transition and the determination of the critical point with the help of Maxwell construction will be reported. - Physics Department Colloquium
- 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