Title: Astrophysical Jets as a Plasma Laboratory

Speaker: Prof. Hui Li (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Time: July 16, 3:00PM

Location: Middle conference room, 3rd floor

Powerful jets from supermassive black holes have fascinated astronomers and physicists for more than half a century. As more observations become available, it is generally recognized that plasma physics holds the key to understanding the formation and propagation of jets as well as the dissipation processes within jets (sometimes with extreme parameters). We will describe the key observations that help us to determine the physical parameters and what we believe the key processes are. We will present relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of jet propagation,emphasizing the role of current-driven instabilities and energy conversion between magnetic fields and kinetic+internal energies. These studies are yielding new insights on understanding the jet stabilities and their associations with the observed variabilities in multi-wavelength observations. Progress has benefited from extensive knowledge in fusion research and collaboration with plasma physicists. Furthermore, dedicated laboratory plasma experiments to study jets have begun to offer new insights into various aspects of jet research.