Events on Thursday, January 15th, 2026
- Graduate Program Event
- Physics Qualifying Exam - Classical Mechanics
- Time: 9:00 am - 10:30 am
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin
- Host: Sharon Kahn
- Graduate Program Event
- Physics Qualifying Exam - Statistical Mechanics
- Time: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin
- Host: Sharon Kahn
- Preliminary Exam
- Kinetic impacts on Rayleigh-Taylor-driven magnetic reconnection in accretion flows
- Time: 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: B343 Sterling or
- Speaker: Braden Buck, Physics PhD Graduate Student
- Abstract: The Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) is ubiquitous in many fluid flows, such as astrophysical plasma flows. The RTI encourages mixing in a medium with an unstably stratified density profile under the influence of an accelerating force such as gravity. If a sheared magnetic field profile is present, the RTI can cause reconnection to occur through plasma mixing, leading to nonthermal particle acceleration for sufficiently low beta plasmas. While the kinetic effects of this phenomenon have been previously studied in two-dimensional simulations (V. Zhdankin, B. Ripperda, A. A. Philippov, 2023), three-dimensional effects have not been explored. Here, we directly compare two-dimensional and three-dimensional localized particle-in-cell kinetic simulations to elucidate three-dimensional effects on RTI-driven magnetic reconnection in a sub-relativistic pair-plasma subjected to a sheared magnetic field profile and RTI-unstable density stratification. This analysis is carried out for a parameter scan across magnetic shear angle values. We expect that these results can provide further insights into plasma physics governing reconnection as well as the near-infrared and X-ray flares observed from localized regions of the accretion disk surrounding Sagittarius A*.
- Host: Vladimir Zhdankin
- Notebook reclamation project
- Notebook reclamation project - January 2026 edition
- Time: 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
- Place: 4328 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Sharon Kahn
- Abstract: A large number of lab notebooks are abandoned each semester by students in physics undergrad classes. Rather than leaving these to hit the garbage or collect dust in grad offices, help reclaim them!
1 – If you have abandoned notebooks in your office (whether from your students or notebooks that were there when you moved in!), bring them to 4328 CH by Thursday, January 15.
2 – Join us to help strip out and recycle the used pages (no need to sign up – just come help!):
3- Need a notebook? Reclaimed notebooks will be free for the taking in the CH lobby (next to the mural).