PlasmaSurf Summer CourseWhere Physics and Summer meet
Summer Course Detailed Programme
Sessions and Contents 2025
Sunday, 13 July
Arrivals
16:00 - Team-building activities.
19:00 - Cheese & wine courtesy party.
21:00 - Invited lecture: "Surfing big waves - how waves developed", by Horácio Fernandes.
The lecture starts with a mini-course on oceanography aimed at the physics of ocean waves, wave prediction and quantifying the quality of a beach for surfing. It will end up with the importance of preserving coastal environment for surfing. Pedro Bicudo is a physics professor at IST and is main research activity is on studying quark confinement in Lattice QCD and on applying chiral symmetry breaking in quark models. He is a surfer enthusiast, an activist for saving waves endangered by see walls or jetties and a researcher in artificial reefs for surfing.
Monday, 14 July
09:00 - Introdution to plasma physics, by Vasco Guerra:
- Definition of plasma
- Occurrence of plasmas in Nature; plasmas in the lab; plasmas at home
- Range of plasma parameters
- World energy consumption and global warming; advantages of nuclear fusion energy
- Confinement processes
10:30 - Break
10:45 - Introduction to plasma physics (cont.):
- Single particle motions; drifts in E and B fields
- Plasma oscillations and plasma waves
- Particle transport in weakly and fully ionized plasmas
- Kinetic description
- Plasma applications: innovative technologies (clean energy, environment protection and remediation, biomedicine, nanomaterials, etc.)
12:00 - Lunch
13:30 - Computational physics, by Thales da Silva:
- Challenges in plasma modelling and the hierarchy of plasma models -
- Massivelly parallel computing and plasma physics
- The particle-in-cell model: from kinetics to hybrid models
- Case studies: from the laboratory to astrophysics:
(a) plasma based accelerators;
(b) collisionless shocks;
(c) relativistic astrophysics.
15:00 – Adjourn
15:30 - Outdoor activities
19:45 - Dinner
Tuesday, 15 July
09:00 - Topics in magnetic nuclear fusion, by António Figueiredo:
- Why fusion?
- The tokamak
- Equilibrium
- Transport of particles and energy
- Instabilities
- Outstanding issues
10:30 - Break
10:45 – Introduction to inertial confinement fusion, by Frederico Fiúza:
- The landscape and status of inertial fusion energy
- Basics of inertial confinement fusion
- Advanced inertial confinement fusion concepts
12:00 – Lunch
13:30 – Plasmas Diagnostics, by Carlos Silva
15:00 – Adjourn
15:30 - Outdoor activities
19:45 - Dinner
Wednesday, 16 July
09:00 - Kinetic and magneto-hydrodynamic description of a plasma, by Paulo Rodrigues:
- Distribution function and its moments
- From the Vlasov equation to the fluid equations
- MHD description of a plasma
- Electron plasma waves and Landau damping
10:30 - Break
10:45 – Plasmas in space, by Mário Lino da Silva:
- Context: Space plasmas and plasmas for Space exploration
- Plasmas in Space
- Plasmas for Space Propulsion
- Atmospheric Entry Plasmas
12:00 - Lunch
13:30 - Introduction to Python, by Rui Coelho:
- Basic features
- NumPy
- matplotlib
- SciPy
15:00 – Adjourn
15:30 - Outdoor activities
19:45 - Dinner
Thursday, 17 July
09:00 - Plasma technologies for material processing, by Tiago Silva:
- Introduction. Low-temperature plasmas. Technological applications
- Gas discharges:
(a) Breakdown;
(b) Townsend discharges and Paschen's law;
(c) Sheaths.
10:30 – Break
10:45 – Plasma technologies for material processing (cont.)
Plasma reactors:
(a) General scheme: vacuum system, injection system, power system, cooling system;
(b) Classification: capacitive radio-frequency reactors, high-density reactors, DC discharges.
12:00 - Lunch
13:30 - Practical class, by Rafael Russo de Almeida:
- Plasma state context
- Waves in plasmas
- Plasma sources
15:00 – Adjourn
15:30 - Outdoor activities
19:45 - Dinner
Friday, 18 July
09:00 - The ITER project challenges and the JET contribution, by Bruno Gonçalves:
- Tokamak engineering
- JET contribution for scenario development
- Plasma wall interaction and Materials
- ITER challenges (heating, diagnostics and materials)
- The way to fusion electricity
10:30 – Break
10:45 – Lasers and laser-plasma interaction, by Hugo Pires:
- Lasers
- High power lasers
- Laser-plasma interaction and applications
12:00 - Lunch
13:30 - Data analysis, by Mário Vaz:
- Analysis of the I-V Langmuir probe characteristics for different plasma conditions
- Assess the validity of the probe measurements
- Spectral analysis and peak detection
15:00 – Closing session
16:00 - Visiting IST, university (Tokamak, ISTTOK)
20:00 - Dinner OUT (Lisbon)
Saturday, 19 July
10:30 - Summary of achievements, Horácio Fernandes/Mário Vaz
- Conclusion of feX: Plasmas
- Presentation of data analysis by each group
13:00 – Closing session