CASUS Institute Seminar, Jan Nikl, PhD, postdoc at Center for Advanced Systems Understanding CASUS, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)
Jan recived his PHD in Physics from the Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering at the Technical University of Prague. Besides, he worked as junior researcher at the Institute of Physica at the Czech Academy of Science before he joined CASUS in 2022 as a postdoc.
Abstract of the talk// Plasma is the fourth state of matter, appearing at many places in the everyday life. And as vast is the range of its forms, its properties vary largely depending on the actual conditions. Typically, when the collisions are dominant, plasma behaves almost like a fluid. Though, important differences exist as rather ionized species are involved, unlike a neutral gas or liquid, and the large population of free electrons interacts collectively. Still, the hydrodynamic description is widely applicable and enables simulations of plasma on the macroscopic scale going from micrometers in the laser experiments up to kiloparsecs of the galactic systems.
The talk focuses rather on the former application, although the beauty of the approach resides in the fact the governing equations remain formally identical, which allows to downscale the astrophysical problems to the laboratory conditions. More than that, the processes inside stars can be exploited to produce clean energy for humankind in the approach known as the inertial confinement fusion, where the hydrodynamic simulations also provide valuable predictions. Furthermore, hydrodynamics finds its application in different fields, like laser ion acceleration or radiation sources and many others. In this talk, Jan will give an overview of these directions and the numerical foundations of the computational solution to the hydrodynamic equations.
Jan will be talking live in Görlitz. However, as the event is organized in a hybrid format that includes a videoconferencing tool by Zoom Inc., people interested in the topic have the chance to also join the talk remotely. Please ask for the login details via contact@casus.science.