Abhay Ram

	Email: abhay@psfc.mit.edu Phone: (617) 253-8501 Address: Room NW16-260 Related links: Physics Research, Fusion Theory & Computation

Research Interests

Magnetic Fusion:

Heating, current drive, and transport induced by radio frequency waves (ion cyclotron, lower hybrid, and electron cyclotron) in toroidal fusion devices.

Scattering of radio frequency waves by plasma fluctuations.

Parametric wave processes in the plasma edge.

Inertial Confinement Fusion:

Laser-plasma interactions, nonlinear evolution of plasma waves, wave-particle interactions.

Space and Astrophysical Plasmas:

Diffusion of magnetic field lines and charged particles in three-dimensional force-free magnetic fields, transport of particles in chaotic magnetic fields, nonlinear acceleration of ionospheric ions by waves, and propagation of waves in density cavities.

Nonlinear Plasma Physics:

Coherent and chaotic dynamics of charged particles induced by electromagnetic waves, characterization of particle diffusion and the evolution of particle distribution function.

Education

University of Nairobi, Kenya, B.S. (Mathematics), (1971).
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. (Physics), (1977)

Selected Publications

Abhay K. Ram, Brahmananda Dasgupta, V. Krishnamurthy, and Dhrubaditya Mitra, “Anomalous diffusion of field lines and charged particles in Arnold-Beltrami-Childress force-free magnetic fields,” Physics of Plasmas 21, 072309 (2014).

Dhrubaditya Mitra, Axel Brandenburg, Brahmananda Dasgupta, Eyvind Niklasson, and Abhay Ram, “Particle energization through time-periodic helical magnetic fields,” Physical Review E 89, 042919 (2014).