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Research Applied Mathematics Pure Mathematics Statistics Applied Mathematics Numerical Analysis Plasma Physics Solar and Magnetospheric Theory Vortex Dynamics

Plasma Physics Group Visit the group website The main research interests of the plasma physics group are as follows. Radio frequency heating of plasmas. Heating by high power electromagnetic waves in the radio frequency or microwave range is an important way of raising the temperature of magnetically confined plasmas to the temperature required for nuclear fusion (around 108 K). We are collaborating with UKAEA at Culham Science Centre (near Oxford) on heating and current drive on MAST (MegAmp Spherical Tokamak), a major experiment there. Laser-plasma interactions Laser technology has advanced over the past few years to a stage where intensities of around 1020 W cm-2 can be produced in a spot focussed in the target. Such intensities are sufficient to produce a wide variety of nonlinear effects and to accelerate particles in the target to very high energies. We are involved in EPSRC supported programmes to investigate such effects in collaboration with researchers at Strathclyde, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and elsewhere. Auroral Kilometric Radiation We have developed a theory of generation of radio waves by electron beams in the auroral region. We are now collaborating with a group at Strathclyde on a programme to reproduce this mechanism in the laboratory. Other Areas of Research  We have studied a variety of other topics, including interaction of neutrinos with plasma and solitary wave structures in non-thermal and dusty plasmas.  Our work has received a number of grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and from the European Commission.