Department of MATHEMATICS. Research Unit: Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics. CHARM IAP 1st annual meeting, ROB april 2013

Transcription

1 Department of MATHEMATICS Research Unit: Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics CHARM IAP 1st annual meeting, ROB april 2013

2 Research areas Mathematical modeling in plasma physics l l Fluid (MagnetoHydroDynamics) and kinetic theory Magnetic Reconnection and multi-scale modeling Magnetoseismology l l Waves and instabilities in solar atmosphere/corona MHD spectroscopy for astrophysical jets, accretion disks, and tokamak (fusion) plasmas Solar physics and Space Weather Solar wind / Coronal Mass Ejections: initiation and evolution Interaction solar wind/interplanetary CMEs with magnetosphere High energy astrophysics (Extra-)galactic jets, accretion disks, relativistic outflows, Numerical algorithm development High performance and parallel computing, adaptive mesh, Particle In Cell treatments, Finite Difference/Finite Volume/Finite Element methods, large scale (generalized) eigenvalue solvers,...

3 Research objectives The research activities of the Centre for Plasma Astrophysics (which will celebrate its 20 year existence, February 2012) are in applied mathematics, with an emphasis on theoretical and computational plasma physics, relevant for solar physics, astrophysics and laboratory (fusion) plasmas. Key applications include magnetoseismology in the solar corona, all aspects of space weather, relativistic plasma dynamics, and fundamental plasma physics research (using kinetic, fluid, to hybrid modeling aspects). We develop and exploit state-of-the-art software packages especially targeted to High Performance Computing and devise mathematical models for generic plasma phenomena.

4 ZAP Members Prof. Marcel Goossens (emeritus since October 2012) Prof. Stefaan Poedts (ex-president for Solar Physics EPS division) Prof. Rony Keppens (Chair) Prof. Giovanni Lapenta (BOF-ZAP) Prof. Tom Van Doorsselaere (Tenure Track Odysseus II) Prof. Paul Gibbon (10%, Director at Julich Supercomputing Centre)

5 Projects FWO projects: To the speed of light: relativistic MHD à Astrophysical jets and gamma ray bursts: ultra-relativistic dynamics (Keppens); Innovative multi-component plasma models (Poedts) GOA `Solar and Space plasma physics' (PI Poedts, co- Is: Keppens, Lapenta, Goossens; ) EU RTN SOLAIRE (13 groups), Intel Exascience Lab: WP1 (Lapenta & Poedts) DEEP (Lapenta, supercomputing with FZ Julich) EC-FP7 projects related to space weather: SOTERIA coordinated by Prof. Lapenta, 16 European groups, soteriaspace.eu Nov , eheroes follow-up! SWIFF coordinated by Prof. Lapenta, 7 European groups, Feb SOLSPANET coordinated by Prof. Poedts, 6 groups, FP7-IRSES project, SPACECAST coordinated by Horne (Cambridge), co-i involvement with Carla Jacobs & Stefaan Poedts,

6 Collaborations The Netherlands: University Utrecht (PhD exchanges, Guest lectures by Keppens), University of Amsterdam, TU/e, FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen BUKS: Belgium-UK-Spain (Leuven, Sheffield, St. Andrews, Warwick, Mallorca) collaboration with exchange visits and international workshop July 2012 Crete (Marcel celebration) Pisa university (SWIFF: June 2012 school), Torino university, TRIESTE Abdus Salam centre,... Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Colorado (Lapenta) Paris (Tournesol project Paris/KULeuven 2010) COST network (black holes in a violent universe, ) Nanjing University, China: PhD exchange visits (all this on top of the many collaborations through FP7 projects and the RTN involvement)

7 Key publications Standard textbooks with Kluwer (2003), Cambridge University Press ( ) Nature physics 2009, 5, (including Lapenta)

8 Collaboration CPA-IvS Connections with Institute of Astronomy, Department Physics & Astronomy: centre specialized in Stellar Astrophysics, covering all aspects from instrumentation to stellar modelling Joint initiatives: v Collaboration on gas-dust circumstelllar modeling, Van Marle et al. (2011) v IDO, : exoplanetary atmospheres: PI Decin (IvS), co-i Keppens (CPA), co-is Dept. of Chemistry v intense collaboration in Master in Astronomy & Astrophysics (courses, student seminars, theses); in particular joint 6 ECTS course: computational methods for astrophysical applications

9 Research highlights Magnetoseismology: analytic and numerical modeling of wave dynamics in magnetized configurations (coronal loops, prominences, accretion disks, magnetized jets, tokamaks ): emphasis on theoretical insights (stratification induced wave mode couplings, spectral behavior when eigenmode operators go from self-adjoint ideal- to non self-adjoint -dissipative, ) as well as direct predictions for periods and damping rates in coronal seismology, used to invert for coronal parameters (as in helioseismology). Highlight: Nature July 11: Alfvén waves in solar corona!

10 Solar physics and space weather HPC Simulations of both local and global magnetized plasma configurations for solar/heliospheric conditions reconnection and plasma turbulence (use both MHD and kinetic PIC simulations, evolve towards to multi-physics, coupling multiple scales: SWIFF and GOA goal) prominence formation and dynamics (MHD plus radiative losses) Solar eruptive events (Coronal Mass Ejections) and interplanetary propagation (SWIFF goal: coupling from magnetoconvection to interplanetary dynamics!) CME Impact on Earth s magnetosphere

11 High energy astrophysics Kinetic plasma instabilities in relativistic regimes (PIC models) Continuum (MHD) Jet launch scenarios from accretion discs, magneto-centrifugal winds/jets AGN jets: (relativistic) MHD models for dynamics, interest in basic fluid-dynamical instability development, models for observed jet flows: mixing and deceleration behavior Astrophysical jet dynamics: (observations, see ApJ Letter 2011) special relativistic HD and MHD models Gamma Ray Burst modeling: ultra-relativistic dynamics in the afterglow phase (relativistic HD and optical/radio lightcurve extraction, flares)

12 HPC and numerical algorithm developments PIC studies (see also DEEP project, CPU-GPU computing) Eulerian/Lagrangian (grid- or particle-based, gridless SPH, ) gas and plasma continuum modeling, shock-capturing capabilities Parallel computing (MPI, openmp, ) and adaptive mesh refinement strategies Eigenvalue solvers (numerical linear algebra, iterative solvers) for MHD spectroscopy (Ledaflow, Phoenix) Elliptic PDE solvers (equilibrium computations, FINESSE) Community code developments: MPI-AMRVAC (also for gas-dust dynamics, pure gas disc dynamics, ), PIC codes like ipic3d (Parsek, Celeste3D, Democritus), MHD codes like Flip-MHD,