Events at Physics |
Events on Tuesday, November 11th, 2025
- Thesis Defense
- Instability Saturation and Turbulent Dynamos in Shear Flows
- Time: 9:00 am - 11:00 am
- Place: B343 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Bindesh Tripathi
- Abstract: Instabilities in nature drive turbulence, which impedes fusion-energy gain in reactors and impacts cosmic observables such as magnetic fields and multi-messenger-astronomy signals. To understand the underlying turbulent processes, this thesis investigates two central questions: How instabilities may saturate, and how turbulence may generate astrophysical magnetic fields at large scales—a process called the dynamo. Previous efforts to address the former have relied exclusively on an energy cascade to microphysical scales and thus missed critical elements of instability-scale mode-couplings. Dynamo efforts have been frustrated because large-scale magnetic-field generation is suppressed via Alfvénization—a robust magnetohydrodynamic process that aligns fluctuations in the fluid velocity u with those in the magnetic field b, i.e., u||b. Addressing these challenges, this thesis develops fundamental principles of instability saturation and applies them to demonstrate a novel mechanism where Alfvénization generates magnetic fields, instead of suppressing the fields. These findings, organized in three parts, apply to shear flows driven unstable by their velocity gradients.
- Host: Paul Terry
- Graduate Program Event
- Virtual Open House for PhD Program Applicants
- Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am
- Place: Register to attend via this Zoom link:
- Speaker: Sharon Kahn, Graduate Program Manager
- Abstract: This session will focus on the Physics PhD program. The Graduate Program Manager for the PhD program, Sharon Kahn, will be joined by current PhD students for this session. We will. . . .
• Talk about the application process and qualities of a strong application
• Answer questions about program activities
• Discuss active research currently underway at UW-Madison
• Share perspectives on life in the Physics Department and on campus
- Host: Sharon Kahn
- Black and Brown in Physics
- BBiP Native American Heritage Month Celebration
- Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
- Place: Sterling B343
- Abstract: The Black and Brown in Physics (BBiP) student organization would like to invite you to our celebration of Native American Heritage Month this coming Tuesday, November 11th at 2PM in Sterling B343. We have two amazing speakers lined up for the event! Our first speaker will be Jacqueline Brixey - a postdoctoral researcher from the Information School and Language Sciences at UW-Madison, who will be discussing her research on indigenous and endangered languages, dialogue systems, and bilingualism. And our second speaker will be Mace Bishop, a third-year physics graduate student also from UW-Madison who will be talking about the Choctaw culture and language. We will also be serving some light snacks during the event.
If you are interested in joining the event remotely, you may do so by using the following Zoom link:
We hope that you will join us in supporting our wonderful speakers in our celebration of Native American culture and heritage! - Council Meeting
- Physics Council Meeting
- Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
- Place: 2314 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Kevin Black, UW - Madison
- Host: Kevin Black