10/18/2021
By Joanne Gagnon-Ketchen
The Physics Colloquium will be held virtually on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 from 4 to 5 p.m.
For link to join contact Joanne Gagnon-Ketchen (joanne_gagnonketchen@uml.edu)
Amitava Bhattacharjee, Professor, Princeton University will give a talk on "Plasmas, Plasmas Burning Bright."
Abstract: Plasmas permeate most of the visible universe. Utilizing plasmas, scientists hope to make thermonuclear fusion a viable energy source, offering effectively unlimited energy production with no carbon footprint. That quest requires better understanding, control and optimization of plasmas and has sparked the creation of the international ITER mega-project, an axisymmetric toroidal plasma device known as the tokamak that carries an axial current.
In this lecture, I will discuss progress in nuclear fusion plasma research and alternatives to tokamaks called stellarators. Stellarators are three-dimensional toroidal plasma devices that are nearly currentless and are hence free of disruptive instabilities. Such devices can have a subtle form of hidden symmetry called ‘quasi-symmetry.’ Designing quasi-symmetric stellarators is an outstanding problem straddling plasma physics, applied mathematics, dynamical systems theory and computational physics. The knowledge gained over the last few decades in fusion plasma physics has directly or indirectly inspired major spin-offs in other areas of science and engineering, ranging from fundamental insights on unsolved problems in the laboratory and the cosmos to applications in materials and medicine.
Bio: Amitava Bhattacharjee is a Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and Head of the Theory Department of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He also serves as Co-Director of the Princeton Center for Heliophysics. Bhattacharjee received his Ph.D. at Princeton University (1981) in theoretical plasma physics from the Department of Astrophysical Sciences. He has taught previously at Columbia University (1984-93) in the Department of Applied Physics, at the University of Iowa (1993-2003) in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the University of New Hampshire (2003-12), where he served as Paul Professor of Space Science. He has served as Senior Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics, as Chair of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, and as Founding Chair of the Topical Group in Plasma Astrophysics of the American Physical Society, and on various prize and fellowship committees.
He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association of the Advancement of Science, and the American Geophysical Union. His research interests include magnetic reconnection, turbulence and singularity formation, kinetic theory, free-electron lasers, and complex (or dusty) plasmas. He and his students and postdoctoral colleagues have authored about 250 papers with broad applications to laboratory (including fusion), space and astrophysical plasmas.