Buzz Feature: SSX Undergraduate Peter Weck investigates the complexity of plasmas
Peter Weck's summer project investigating the permutation entropy and statistical complexity of three different plasmas--laboratory plasmas at Swarthmore and UCLA and solar wind at 1AU--has culminated in a first-author publication in Physical Review E released online in February 2015. Peter has produced extremely good work in extraordinary time; even though he began the work at the beginning of the summer of 2014, he had a working draft for the paper by the fall of 2014. Peter has continued work through the 2014-2015 school year completing a senior thesis on the material and a very informative talk.
Buzz Feature: Two new papers accepted to start 2015
Two Papers Accepted to Start the New Year
Two papers, "Permutation entropy and statistical complexity analysis of turbulence in laboratory plasmas and the solar wind" written by Peter Weck '15 and "Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Observation and Experiment" by Michael Brown have been accepted January 2015 for publication in Physical Review E and Physics of Plasma respectively. The first is Peter's first publication and also represents the SSX lab's first foray into both information theory analysis as well as the use of solar wind data. Mike's paper stems from his Invited Tutorial from APS-DPP 2014 and comprises a tutorial on turbulence analysis techniques using a single time series from the WIND satellite in the solar wind. Online versions will be available as soon as they are published.
Buzz Feature: Laboratory Astrophysics on Physics Central
Solar Winds and Hot Plasma Experiments
Turbulence research on SSX was recently profiled on the Physics Buzz blog along with experiments from UCLA and Princeton. All three research areas fall under the umbrella of laboratory astrophysics. The blog post includes a podcast with interviews of David Schaffner, Seth Dorfman (UCLA) and Masaaki Yamada (Princeton).
Buzz Feature: Grappling with the Unknown
SSX hits Swarthmore front page
Undergraduates Peter Weck and Adrian Wan are interviewed about research and publishing on the SSX in this news feature from the Swarthmore front page.
Buzz Feature: Prof. Brown Gives Turbulence Tutorial at APS-DPP 2014
Prof. Brown Gives Turbulence Tutorial at APS-DPP 2014
At the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference (APS-DPP) this year, Professor Brown gave a tutorial talk on turbulence titled "MHD Turbulence: Observation and Experiment." The talk, which was attended by about 150 other plasma physicists from around the country, gave an overview of basic turbulence theory, then discussed four particular metrics used to analyze turbulence and specifically how these metrics are used on SSX. The talk incorporated research conducted by Swarthmore undergraduates Adrian Wan '15 and Peter Weck '15.
See the pdf version of the talk here.
Buzz Feature: Peter Weck '15 Presents Poster at APS-DPP 2014
Peter Weck '15 Presents Poster at APS-DPP 2014
Peter Weck '15 presented his research at the APS DPP meeting in New Orleans during the undergraduate poster session. Peter's work focuses on a relatively new turbulence analysis technique that looks at the permutation entropy and statistical complexity of a time series signal. See Peter's poster here.
Buzz Feature: SSX in APS-DPP Press Release
SSX among experiments profiled in APS-DPP press release
The field of plasma astrophysics is explored in various laboratory settings including MRX at Princeton, LAPD at UCLA, the dipole experiment at Columbia University and SSX at Swarthmore.
See press release here.
Buzz Feature Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar 2014 - Emily Hudson
Emily Hudson '17 Named a Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar
Emily Hudson '17 was named a Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar for the summer of 2014. The Vandervelde-Cheng Scholarship supports summer physics research for Swarthmore undergrads. Emily's work this summer focused on studying the velocity of plasma plumes down the MHD wind tunnel on SSX. She presented her work at the Sigma Xi exhibition in the Science Commons.
