Simons Foundation Courses

Recent Advances in Stellarator Coil Optimization - March 21, 2025

Explore recent advances in stellarator coil optimization, including strain analysis, force calculations, and innovative methodologies using voxels, dipole arrays, and passive arrays.

• YouTube
• 24 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Optimization and Engineering for EPOS - March 21, 2025

Dive into the optimization and engineering challenges of EPOS, a stellarator designed to trap electron-positron plasmas, exploring quasisymmetry, high-temperature superconducting coils, and integration with positron injection systems.

• YouTube
• 26 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Turnstiles and Topological Index in Fusion Reactor Divertors

Explore the mathematical analysis of magnetic field topology in fusion reactors, focusing on turnstile mechanisms and their role in controlling plasma-wall interactions and optimizing divertor performance.

• YouTube
• 28 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Full Flux Surface of Gyrokinetic Code, stella

Explore the full flux surface version of stella, a gyrokinetic code using pseudo-spectral methods to efficiently simulate plasma turbulence in complex magnetic geometries for fusion research, with enhanced computational efficiency.

• YouTube
• 21 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Understanding Quasi-isodynamicity

Delve into the fundamentals of quasi-isodynamicity in magnetic field-plasma systems for fusion energy, exploring its characteristics, challenges, and practical applications in stellarator design through near-axis theory.

• YouTube
• 20 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Recent Advances in Stellarator Coil Optimization - March 21, 2025

Explore recent advances in stellarator coil optimization, including strain analysis, force calculations, and innovative methodologies using voxels, dipole arrays, and passive arrays.

• YouTube
• 30 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Design and Optimization of the Columbia Stellarator eXperiment

Explore the design and optimization of the Columbia Stellarator eXperiment (CSX), focusing on novel single-stage optimization techniques that simultaneously address plasma physics requirements and engineering constraints for fusion energy research.

• YouTube
• 21 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

The Non-Perturbative Adiabatic Invariant is All You Need

Discover a non-perturbative, data-driven averaging method for highly-oscillatory dynamical systems with marginal timescale separation, outperforming traditional asymptotic averaging in charged particle contexts.

• YouTube
• 19 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Regularization and Convergence of the Near-Axis Expansion

Dive into the numerical analysis of the near-axis expansion for stellarator configurations, exploring regularization techniques that ensure convergence and examining the relationship between radius of convergence and axis-coil distance.

• YouTube
• 19 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Nonlinear Plasma Wave Dynamics in Magnetar Magnetospheres (February 27, 2025)

Explore nonlinear plasma wave dynamics in magnetars, focusing on how Alfvén waves triggered by crustal activities undergo transformations in extreme magnetic fields, potentially explaining observed multiwavelength emissions.

• YouTube
• 50 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Hidden Figures - Positrons - February 27, 2025

Explore how general relativistic simulations and ray tracers test particle energetics in black hole systems, with focus on positron signatures in M87 and implications for dark matter.

• YouTube
• 56 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Magnetic Keys to a Cosmic Puzzle (February 27, 2025)

Delve into the role of magnetic fields in ultra-high-energy cosmic ray acceleration and propagation, exploring how they may help identify the unknown sources of these energetic particles.

• YouTube
• 48 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Diffusion and Vortices in Strongly Coupled Plasmas (February 27, 2025)

Explore diffusion coefficients in strongly coupled plasmas and their impact on neutron star crust elasticity, with insights into vortex pinning and unpinning processes through molecular dynamics simulations.

• YouTube
• 49 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Fast Radio Bursts and Extreme Electromagnetism (February 28, 2025)

Explore the physics of fast radio bursts, their generation by magnetized neutron stars, and the extreme electromagnetic phenomena in the universe, including their connection to gravitational waves.

• YouTube
• 52 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video

Extreme Plasma Physics: From Astrophysics to the Laboratory

Explore extreme plasma physics and how high-intensity lasers and particle beams are creating laboratory conditions to study neutron stars and black holes, challenging our understanding of plasmas in extreme environments.

• YouTube
• 51 minutes
• Self-Paced
• Free Video