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Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminars

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Events During the Week of March 13th through March 20th, 2016

Monday, March 14th, 2016

Magnetic pumping of the solar wind, and new results from the Terrestrial Reconnection Experiment (TREX)
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Place: 1153 Mechanical Engineering
Speaker: Jan Egedal, UW Madison
Abstract: The transport of matter and radiation in the solar wind and terrestrial magnetosphere is a complicated problem involving competing processes of charged particles interacting with electric and magnetic fields in a turbulent medium. Given the rapid expansion of the solarwind, it would be expected that superthermal electrons originating in the corona would cool rapidly as a function of distance to the Sun. However, this is not observed, and various models have been proposed as plausible candidates for heating the solar wind as it super-sonically streams away from the sun. Here we investigate magnetic pumping as a possible heating source. The mechanism allows energy to be transferred to the particles directly from the largest scales of the solar wind turbulence. Guided by kinetic simulations a theory is derived for magnetic pumping, expressed through a generalization of the Parker Equation to capture the role of the pressure anisotropy during the pumping process. In the talk I will also discuss the latest results from the Terrestrial Reconnection Experiment. These results include the formation of collisionless reconnection layers, strongly modulated by the plasmoid instability.
Host: UW Madison
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Tuesday, March 15th, 2016

No events scheduled

Wednesday, March 16th, 2016

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Thursday, March 17th, 2016

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Friday, March 18th, 2016

No events scheduled