I perform particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations on massively parallel PC clusters and I analyse and visualize the multi-dimensional data. The particle-in-cell simulation method
approximates a plasma by an ensemble of computational particles, which are coupled through the Maxwell equations to
electromagnetic fields. Particles can move through a phase space with up to 6 independent dimensions (three position and
three velocity coordinates) and they interact only electromagnetically. The high dimensional phase space path of each
computational particle and the approximation of the plasma by billions of such particles, which are followed over tens
of thousands of time steps, constitute a challenge to data reduction, analysis and storage methods as well as to the
data visualization. I have examined in the past the interaction of antennas with plasma, the thermalization of fast
beams of charged particles through plasma instabilities in the context of astrophysical plasma scenarios, e.g.
plasma jets and
shocks. More recently,
I have started to examine processes that take place in laser-generated plasma, which are relevant for example to
inertial confinement fusion.
I perform this work in collaboration with the
Centre for Plasma Physics (CPP) at the Queen's University Belfast (UK), with
ETSI Industriales at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) and with
CRAL at the Ecole Nationale Superieure de Lyon (France).
