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Organisation

Plasma-astrophysics

Division

Main organisation:Department of Mathematics
Lifecycle:1 Jul 1977 →  Today
Organisation profile:

Research is focused on the Magnetohydrodynamics of magnetic plasmas in the sun and stars. It aims to explain fundamental processes observed in the sun and other astrophysical bodies. It builds on and complements the laws of plasma physics that are investigated in magnetic fusion machines. Current research topics are: - Ideal and resistive MHD stability of magnetic arcades and loops in order to explain the remarkable stability and the sudden disruptions of these plasma structures in the solar atmosphere. - Theory and numerical simulations of linear and non-linear MHD waves of the different magnetic structures in the solar atmosphere. - Magnetic heating of plasmas by MHD waves and magnetic field reconnection. - Thermal stability of magnetic plasmas and formation of cool condensations in the solar corona and in magnetic fusion machines. - Absorption and scattering of acoustic oscillations by an isolated flux tube and an ensemble of flux tubes in order to explain the observed absorption of power of global acoustic solar oscillations in sunspots. Sunspot seismology. - Global solar oscillations and in particular the effects of an atmospheric magnetic field and convective velocity fields on the frequencies of these global oscillations. - Heating of coronal holes and acceleration of stellar winds. - Formation of prominence fine-structure. - Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs): origin and characteristics. - Shear flow induced phenomena in astrophysical plasmas.

Keywords:Waves, Numerical simulations, Magnetohydrodynamics, Plasma Physics, Astrophysics, Solar Physics, Coronal Heating, Instabilities
Disciplines:Applied mathematics in specific fields, Computer architecture and networks, Distributed computing, Information sciences, Information systems, Programming languages, Scientific computing, Theoretical computer science, Visual computing, Other information and computing sciences, Classical physics, Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges, Atmospheric sciences, Physical geography and environmental geoscience, Atmospheric sciences, challenges and pollution, Astronomy and space sciences