Seminar: Electrostatic turbulence and electron heating in collisionless shocks

Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous across the universe. They are a highly non-linear phenomenon, across which plasma particles are heated, and accelerated, and their entropy increases despite the absence of collisions. A large amount of literature has been produced studying their dynamics, yet many open questions remain. One such question is that of the electron dynamics across the shock and its interaction with the various small-scale electrostatic waves excited within the shock layer.

For the past 4 years, I have been using the Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) spacecraft to study the dynamics of Earth’s bow shock using in-situ measurement to provide a step forward toward answering some of those open questions. In this 6 months seminar, I will share with you the main results of the last three papers we published along with those that are still in preparation all of which will constitute the bulk of my PhD thesis.

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We shall leave for lunch at around 12:15. There will be fika after the seminar.