IAS Astrophysics Group Learning Seminar:
Plasma [Astro]Physics

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Organization:
Blackboard-type talks at slow pace with discussions on the go. Self-contained course. Only build on the material covered in previous lectures. Length of a lecture <=2hrs.
Remote joining or all-online options will be available.

Links:
Lecture notes by Matt Kunz

Topic 1: Introduction (Lev Arzamasskiy) [pdf.268.7 MB]

• Various key parameters/terms from plasma physics (magnetic moment, plasma frequency, Debye length)
• Systems of equations that plasma physicists solve
  • Brief mention of computational methods
• Other fundamentals necessary to understand future lectures

Topic 2: How to measure the magnetic field (Libby Tolman)

• Faraday rotation
• Zeeman splitting
• Polarized dust emission and starlight polarization
• New statistical methods on measuring turbulent magnetic fields (?)

Topic 3: Reconnection (Jim Stone)

• Where reconnection happens
• Sweet parker model
• Tearing instability
• Turbulent reconnection(?)
• Reconnection acceleration vs. turbulent acceleration (1st vs. 2nd order Fermi)(?)
• What people are researching today

Topic 4: Dynamo/Turbulence (Siyao Xu)

• Hydrodynamic turbulence
• MHD turbulence
• Dynamo
• What people are researching today

Topic 5: Shocks

• Rankine–Hugoniot conditions
• Particle acceleration
• What people are researching today

Topic 6: Accretion

• Eddington limit and models for accretion
• MRI
• What people are researching today

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