Who Am I?

Thomas M. Antonsen Jr.

Professor of Physics and Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Maryland College Park

But more importantly father of two Poolesville Students: Tom-07, Christine-11

How Did I Get Here?Middle School -Played with chemistry set - only one “successful” explosion-Amazed by a computer that played tic-tac-toe

High School - Blossomed into full nerdiness-Math club-Chemsitry club - favorite teacher Mrs Corrizzi-Electronics (had my own oscilliscope) - second favorite teacher “Rocky” Calvano

CollegeBS (Electrical Engineering) 4 yrs Ravi SudanMS/PhD (Plasma Physics) 3 yearsEd OttCareerPost Doc Naval Research Lab 1 yearResearch Scientist (MIT 3 years)Joined University of Maryland in 1980

1969-2010 40/41 years at a University

I still look the same as in college but with shorter hair

Q. What do Scientists and Engineers do? A. Everything from basic Research to Business

(All these thing involve math)

The American Physical Societywww.aps.org

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineerswww.ieee.org

Physics Careers: basic to applied problem solving

IndustryShort term projects (engineering)Long term (applied) research projects

Research at National Laboratories (NIST, NIH, NASA, DoE, DoD etc. (basic- Applied)

Research at universities

Teaching

Professors do all the above

What is it like to be a Physicist?

johnstodderinexile.wordpress.com/ 2006/04/ www.sacbee.com/.../ stuart-leavenworth/2009/10/

Lone visionary Team memberor

Big Science: Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

LHC-CERNwww.ifj.edu.pl/ edukacja/cern.html

theobservereffect.files.wordpress.com/ 2009/03..

physicsweb.phy.uic.edu/.../ cms_hcal_insert.jpg

www.nd.edu/~druccio/ images/frankenstein_lab.jpg

Dingy Lab Cheerful Office

What are the working conditions like?

Scientists Attend Conferences

Scientists have to communicate their findings to other scientists, funding agents, and the public.

Must write clearly

Must speak clearly

But you don’t have to dress nice

Bonus: travel to exotic places

My Office/Group

My PhD advisor

Math for Physicists and Engineers

• Calculus - single and multi-variable• Differential Equations - ordinary and partial• Linear Algebra: matrices, eigenvectors, eigenvalues• Probablilty• Fourier Analysis • Numerical Methods - how to solve a problem on a computer

computer programming, architecture• Complex variables• Aymptotic Analysis -how to find approximate solutions

Plasma Physics

http://FusEdWeb.pppl.gov/

Plasma is the fourth state of matter (solid, liquid, gas, plasma)

Most of the visibleuniverse is plasma

Small nuclei stick together to make a bigger one and releases energy

Fission Fusion

Fusion powers all the stars, including the Sun.

The fuel is hydrogen, but it has to be heated to millions of degrees to ignite the burn

Power plants based on fusion could supply all our electrical needs. They could also be used to generate hydrogen for fuel cell cars, thus reducing consumption of oil.

Why Fusion?

• Fuel is inexhaustible and available to all (from water)

• There is no CO2 emission

• There is no danger of a runaway or a meltdown – turn it off like a gas burner

• Waste is low level and has to be monitored only for 50-100 years (Yucca Mountain is for ~10,000 years)

• Low risk of nuclear materials proliferation - No uranium or plutonium

State of the ArtMagnetic Confinement: ITER

US-EU-Russia-Japan-India Collaboration

Will be built in Cardarache France

Completion 2016??

http://www.iter.org/

Inertial Confinement: NIF

Lawrence Livermore Lab

Under construction

Completion expected in 2008

http://www.llnl.gov/nif/Similar program in France

Particle Acceleration Using Plasmas

Intense laser pulse

plasma:

E

B

k

Direct acceleration limited to laser period

Laser PulsePlasma Wave

€

c /ω p

Plasma wave driven by force of laser pulse

Speed of wave = group velocity of laser pulse

Duration of pulse matched to plasma period

I=1018 W/cm2, L= 10cm E ~ 1 GeV

How Does it Really Work?

Analogy:

Laser Pulse Boat

Plasma Lake

Plasma Wave Surface Wave

Electrons Surfer

QuickTime™ and aH.263 decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Relativity: Small change in velocity Large change in energyInjection Tow rope

Questions

• Cellular clocks in the brain.• Pacemaker cells in the heart.• Pedestrians on a bridge.• Josephson junction circuits.• Laser arrays.• Oscillating chemical reactions.• Bubbly fluids.

Examples of synchronized oscillators

Cellular clocks in the brain (day-night cycle).

Yamaguchi et al., Science 302, 1408 (‘03).

Incoherent

Coherent

Synchrony in the brain

Passive scalar at n=5 with M=1

φκφφ 2/ ∇=∇⋅+∂∂rr

vt

Fusion Energy Research

T. M. Antonsen: antonsen@umd.edu, (301) 405-1635

University of Maryland

March 11, 2008

Can we do fusion?

• This is a Grand Challenge problem

• All scientists agree that power generation by fusion can be achieved; the only question is will it be cost-competitive

• Enormous progress has been made in the last 50 years

• As we get closer to the goal, each experiment takes longer to plan and construct (takes years) and is expensive

RF Particle AcceleratorsBig and Expensive

LHC-CERNwww.ifj.edu.pl/ edukacja/cern.html

Accelerating gradient: 20-100 MeV/mLimited by breakdown on metal structuresCan large laser field be used?

SLAChttp://shengri.stanford.edu/Photo/Misc/Stanford/page_01.htm