Return to Colloquia & Seminar listing
NUMERICAL MODELING OF SPACE AND LABORATORY PLASMAS.
Applied Math| Speaker: | Mayya Tokman, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory |
| Location: | 693 Kerr |
| Start time: | Fri, May 28 2004, 4:10PM |
Description
In many problems involving astrophysical and laboratory
plasmas one must understand the large scale behavior of a plasma configuration,
predict the structure and dynamics of its magnetic field and determine conditions
for its stability. This talk will be focused on two such applications: the behavior
of magnetic arcades in the solar outer atmosphere (corona) and laboratory experiments
designed to simulate coronal and other astrophysical plasmas. The large scale behavior of these plasmas
can be described using the theory of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). However, the inherent
three-dimensionality of the dynamics and the presence of widely separated spatial and temporal
scales in the problems makes it difficult to solve the MHD equations numerically. I will discuss
the models constructed to help understand the dynamics of these plasmas,
the questions they help answer and the methods that address the numerical challenges of the
equations. In particular, I will describe exponential propagation time integrators which help
alleviate problems associated with the stiffness of the MHD system.