Thermodynamics of Plasmas workshop

Session

Violent relaxation

Violent relaxation

6 Oct 2026, 14:00

Bernoulli center (EPFL)

Conveners

Violent relaxation: Violent relaxation

• W Sengupta

14. "Collisionless relaxation" of a stratified fluid plasma

David Hosking (University of Cambridge)

06/10/2026, 14:00

Main track

Oral presentation

Motivated by explosive releases of energy in fusion, space and astrophysical plasmas, we consider the nonlinear stability of stratified magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equilibria against two-dimensional interchanges of straight magnetic-flux tubes. We demonstrate that, even within this restricted class of dynamics, the linear stability of an equilibrium does not guarantee its nonlinear stability:...

8. Violent relaxation redux

Michael Nastac (University of Oxford)

06/10/2026, 14:40

Main track

Oral presentation

Nearly collisionless self-gravitating systems far from equilibrium, such as merging galaxies, rapidly relax toward virialized equilibria through violent relaxation. I will present a framework for predicting the equilibria of violent relaxing systems that combines Lynden-Bell statistical mechanics and the time evolution of the system’s Casimir invariants [1]. The Casimirs evolve because...

5. Relaxation of Cold Dark Matter Systems to Lynden-Bell Equilibria

Barry Ginat (University of Oxford)

06/10/2026, 15:50

Main track

Oral presentation

Gravitational collapse in large-scale structure formation is a highly non-linear process, governed by the Vlasov-Poisson system. In this talk, I will describe how this process leads to a flow of structure to small phase-space scales, in a manner which gives rise to a universal power-law scaling of the phase-space power-spectrum at small scales. Then, I will describe how this process leads to a...