Events During the Week of April 19th through April 26th, 2026
Monday, April 20th, 2026
- Plasma Physics (Physics/ECE/NE 922) Seminar
- Effects of magnetic geometry and neutrals in gyrokinetic simulations of magnetized boundary plasmas
- Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Place: Engineering Hall - 1227
- Speaker: Dr. Tess Bernard, General Atomics
- Abstract: Successful fusion pilot plant (FPP) design hinges upon the ability to predict and control exhaust conditions to maximize the lifetime of plasma-facing components. This work describes a pathway toward high-fidelity, first-principles simulations with predictive capabilities for plasma particle fueling and detachment. It presents the coupling of a continuum full-f gyrokinetic turbulence model with atomic neutral models, using the Gkeyll code. To investigate how neutral interactions and plasma shaping fundamentally affect edge turbulent transport, we carry out simulations of DIII-D inner-wall-limited (IWL) plasmas. We specifically consider negative triangularity (NT) plasmas, which exhibit robust confinement properties without the presence of disruptive edge localized modes (ELMs). Results demonstrate good agreement with experimental data, with neutral interactions providing important particle fueling and heat loss channels. Our analysis reveals key differences in the shear flow and turbulent fluctuations that contribute to improved confinement properties in NT.
- Host: Stephanie J. Diem
- Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)
- Title to be announced
- Time: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 5280
- Speaker: Hongwan Liu, Boston U.
- Abstract: TBA
- Host: Joshua Foster
- Graduate Program Event
- A search for dark matter recoiling from the standard model Higgs boson using the CMS experiment
- Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 5290
- Speaker: Shivani Lomte
- Abstract: TBD
- Host: Sridhara Dasu
Tuesday, April 21st, 2026
- No events scheduled
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
- Board of Visitors Meeting
- Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
- Place: B343 Sterling
- Speaker: Various
- Host: Kevin Black
Thursday, April 23rd, 2026
- R. G. Herb Condensed Matter Seminar
- High-Temporal-Resolution Measurements of the Impacts of Ionizing Radiation on Superconducting Qubits
- Time: 10:00 am
- Place: 5310 Chamberlin Hall
- Speaker: Brad Christensen, Northrop Grumman
- Host: Robert McDermott
- Astronomy Colloquium
- The Virtual Planetary Laboratory and the Search for Signs of Life on Exoplanets
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: 4421 Sterling Hall
- Speaker: Victoria Meadows, Senior Research Scientist, SETI Institute
- Abstract: The Virtual Planetary Laboratory is a massively interdisciplinary research group that has been working since 2001 to put a strong scientific foundation under the search for signs of life on exoplanets. This exciting quest was identified as a high priority in both the Astro2020 and planetary science decadal reviews, and it is a key science driver for NASA’s next flagship space telescope, the Habitable Worlds Observatory. To search for life on an exoplanet we must look for potentially-detectable global impacts of life on its planetary environment, such as atmospheric gases released by metabolic processes. However, these biosignatures must be interpreted in the context of their planetary environment, to rule out planetary processes such as volcanism and photochemistry that may enhance, destroy or mimic a targeted biosignature. Consequently, to determine if a biosignature is more or less likely to be due to life, a broad range of information on planetary and stellar properties and processes must also be acquired. Depending on wavelength range, size, and whether ground- or space-based, different telescopes will be capable of advancing the search for life in different ways, ultimately providing synergistic pieces of a much larger puzzle. In this talk I will describe the potential capabilities for biosignature searches using high-resolution spectroscopy with ground-based telescopes and low resolution spectroscopy with JWST, and I will place these opportunities in the context of what might be possible with space-based telescopes over the next two decades.
- Host: Joint colloquium with WiCOR
Friday, April 24th, 2026
- Physics Department Colloquium
- The attosecond-Ångstrom frontier at x-ray free-electron lasers
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 2241
- Speaker: Linda Young, ANL
- Abstract: The recent advent of x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) enables researchers to watch matter move on the natural time and length scales of electronic and atomic motion. Not only are freeze-frame snapshots with sub-femtosecond exposure times possible, these accelerator-based x-ray laser sources provide coherent radiation of sufficient intensity to perform nonlinear spectroscopy with x-rays. Within this context I will discuss two recent projects from our group, the realization of super-resolution stimulated x-ray Raman spectroscopy and attosecond-pump/attosecond-probe spectroscopy of liquid water, and some opportunities for future studies to understand x-ray interactions with matter.
- Host: Uwe Bergmann