Graduate Student - Ph.D.

Physics and Astronomy

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)

Gregory G Howes

Performing direct numerical simulations of turbulence in kinetic plasmas, and studying the resultant heating from dissipation.

My research concentrates on direct numerical simulations of turbulence in kinetic plasmas, and the resultant heating from its dissipation. To achieve this simulation on a three-dimensional plasma in phase space we use a technique common in fusion research called gyrokinetics. Gyrokinetics averages over the cyclotron motion about the magnetic field, reducing the problem from six dimensions to five. This approach yields the optimal description for most fusion and astrophysical turbulent systems. The kinetic nonlinear simulations require cutting edge supercomputers and use Astrophysical Gyrokinetics Code (AstroGK). AstroGK has already been used by my collaboration to perform the first direct simulation of astrophysical turbulence and is the only currently viable method for self consistently determining plasma heating in kinetic astrophysical plasmas.