Space and Astrophysical Plasma Simulation

Joerg Buchner is a researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute of Solar System Research (MPS), Goettingen and at the Center for Astrophysics and Astronomy of the Berlin Institute of Technology (ZAA, TU Berlin) in Germany. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1980, his Dr. sc. nat. degree in Berlin 1990. He habilitated in 1999 at the Georg-August University in Goettingen where he became adjunct Professor in 2005. He was visiting research Professor at UCLA Los Angeles (USA), at the University of Nagoya-Toyokawa (Japan), and an eminent Professor at the University of Tokyo (Japan). He is a distinguished visiting Professor at the University of Nanchang (China) and worked for the Max-Planck-Princeton Center for Plasma Physics (MPPC). His research focuses on the investigation of space and astrophysical plasma phenomena, in particular of the Sun and magnetospheres as well as of pulsars, on which he has authored over 280 papers. He has taken a major role in several international space physics projects. For more than 20 years he taught space physics, the physics of solar system plasmas and their numerical simulation to students at Goettingen and Berlin Universities over the whole range of topics covered by this book.

Introduction to MHD simulations (solar system plasmas).- Hall-MHD  plasma simulation.- Multi-fluid simulation.- Hybrid- kinetic approach.- Gyro-kinetic restricted kinetic simulation.- Eulerian Vlasov fully kinetic simulation.- Particle-in-Cell fully kinetic simulation.- Adaptive Global MHD Simulations.- Mesoscale HD and MHD simulations of the Interstellar Medium in Galaxies.- Coupling of Kinetic and MHD simulations.- Shock waves in space plasma.- Magnetic reconnection in space plasmas.- Higher-order numerical solutions of the continuum MHD equations.- Self-Adaptive algorithms for multiscale simulations - the discrete event technology.- Techniques for effective scientific visualization and discovery including  illustrative examples from petascale simulation results.