Title: Energy Conversion and Particle Acceleration at Turbulent Plasma Jet Fronts
Opponent: Tomas Karlsson, KTH Stockholm
Date: 12 January 2022
Time: 10:15 CET
Location: Å-90103, Ångströmlaboratoriet (https://use.mazemap.com/?campusid=49&sharepoitype=identifier&sharepoi=%C3%85ngstr%C3%B6m-90103)
Zoom link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/62709107429
Meeting ID: 627 0910 7429
Abstract:
High speed plasma flows (jets) are ubiquitous phenomena in the universe. For example, they carry energy from the most powerful sources (e.g active galactic nucleï AGN) to the medium at rest surrounding them. When the plasma at rest encounters the front of the fast flow, it gains energy via conversion from magnetic field energy to particle heating and acceleration. High speed plasma flows are also common in planetary magnetospheres including the Earth's magnetotail. In particular the fast Earthward magnetic reconnection outflows in the Earth's magnetotail provide a laboratory to address some of the open questions related to plasma jet fronts and the associated energy conversion. In this thesis, we use the four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft to investigate current sheet flapping, particle heating and particle acceleration associated with the fast magnetotail flows.