12:00–1:00 pm ERC 501
Host: Jeff McMahon
Siddhartha Gupta "A journey of thermal electrons to nonthermal energies"
Energetic charged particles (cosmic rays) are one of the main contributors to the nonthermal energies in the universe. Although diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) is the promising mechanism for particle acceleration at shocks, whether the processes that promote particles to DSA act similarly for electrons and protons/ions is still not well understood. In today's lunch talk, I will discuss our ongoing efforts using first-principles kinetic simulations to solve the problem. I will present a minimal model and describe the favorable environments for electron acceleration. These investigations are crucial for developing a prescription for nonthermal electrons found in a variety of shocks from the interstellar medium to galaxy clusters.
TK Chan "Computer Simulations using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics"
Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a widely used simulation technique in astronomy and engineering. This method represents fluid properties with overlapping smoothed kernels, also known as "particles". These particles follow the fluid movement and effectively increase the resolution in regions with high density, making them particularly suitable for solving supersonic and high-density contrast problems.
