Student: Kumar Vineet
Supervisor: Mgr. Michal Hejduk, Ph.D.
ConsultantRNDr. Štěpán Roučka, Ph.D.
Status: Assigned
Abstract:
How a strongly coupled plasma behaves dynamically as a whole is governed primarily by long-range interactions, not thermal fluctuations like in the classical plasma. The strongly coupled plasma can be found in cores of white dwarf stars and surfaces of neutron stars where it gains the stability from the effect that electron-ion recombination processes are suppressed due to delocalisation of the electrons over many ions. Such a system is possible to be produced by cooling the plasma to fractions of a degree above absolute zero.
Such an ultra-cold plasma is a non-linear system, where most interactions are of a non-binary nature. Its interactions with photons can result in changes of the dynamics of charge carriers and modify the properties of the light passing through.
The prospective student will focus on observation of interactions between the quantum many-body system in the ultra-cold plasma and photons in order to figure out how to exploit them in monitoring dynamics of ions and electrons. For that purpose, he/she will construct an optical resonator matched with a novel electron-ion trap. As the optical diagnostics is inseparable from the problem of plasma confinement, he/she will contribute to the design of the whole experimental apparatus.