Dr David Tsiklauri Project Abstracts
BSc Project Abstracts and MSci Research/Investigative Project Abstracts
Magnetic fields in the solar corona
The project involves (i) writing a numerical code to produce potential extrapolation of magnetic fields from solar photosphere to corona; (ii) comparison with observations (iii) critical analysis of the literature on importance of magnetic field reconnection in solar coronal heating.
Dissipation of Alfven waves via phase mixing
The project involves (i) analytical calculations; (ii) writing a numerical code to study the dissipation of Alfven waves via phase mixing; (iii) critical analysis of the literature on importance of MHD wave dissipation in solar coronal heating.
MSci Review Project Abstract
Magnetic fields in the solar corona
The project involves critical analysis of the literature on importance of magnetic field reconnection in solar coronal heating.
Dissipation of Alfven waves via phase mixing
The project involves critical analysis of the literature on importance of MHD wave dissipation via phase mixing in solar coronal heating.
Plasma wake field acceleration.
Conventional particle accelerators have an accelerating gradient of tens of MV/m. Recently authors of M. Litos and et al. Nature, 515:92–95, 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature13882 have taken a leap forward in plasma wake field acceleration (PWFA). In their plasma wakefield accelerator, the plasma wave is created by a 20-GeV electron bunch from SLAC’s linac. A second bunch of equally energetic electrons follows close behind. With SLAC’s purpose-built Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests (FACET) , authors could place the trailing bunch at just the right spot in the plasma wave to increase the bunch energy by 2 GeV over just 30 cm of plasma. The project involves critical analysis of the literature on importance of plasma wakes in novel particle accelerators.
Particle acceleration around supermassive black holes.
There are two distinct threads in this project. Understanding novel particle acceleration concepts based on (i) helical kink instability and (ii) plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) as the source of ultra high energy cosmic rays which are believed to come from jets of material from black holes (BHs). The project involves critical analysis of the literature on cutting-edge plasma fluid and kinetic numerical simulations and ground-breaking analytical calculations to address the fascinating, unanswered science questions related to particle acceleration in supermassive BHs. T. Ebisuzaki and T. Tajima, Asrophysical ZeV acceleration in the relativistic jet from an accreting supermassive blackhole, Astropart. Phys. 56, 9 (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2014.02.004
Kinetic modeling of the electromagnetic precursor from an axisymmetric binary pulsar coalescence
The recent detection of gravitational waves associated with a binary neutron star merger revives interest in interacting pulsar magnetospheres. Current models predict that a significant amount of magnetic energy should be released prior to the merger, leading to electromagnetic precursor emission. In this review project, we revisit this problem in the light of the recent progress in kinetic modeling of pulsar magnetospheres. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834610