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Feb. 7th, 2006 10:07 pmI sort of came to the stark realization today that my thesis is due on at noon on Friday, March 3. For all intents and purposes, this is just over 3 weeks away.
Some things are in place. My theory section is mostly complete; I spent some time talking to Chris this afternoon, and he gave me useful suggestions for discussing how flows can stabilize various MHD instabilities, and for discussing MHD equilibria in general. Over the last few days, I've spent a lot of time reading and writing about prior laboratory reconnection experiments (UCLA LPD, Tokyo TS-3, Princeton MRX). I might have gone a little overboard, particularly with MRX, but it's really interesting. So the remaining areas of prior work that need to be filled in are things about astrophysical observations other than SOHO/SUMER (although as a physicist I don't plan to go into nearly as much detail about the astrophysics as I did with the lab experiments), and a discussion of previous ion doppler spectroscopy experiments in plasmas. It might also be good, although perhaps not essential, to discuss recent computational studies of reconnection (e.g. Shay et al).
However, a lot of work needs to be done for the experimental methods, results, and discussion sections. These will take a long time. One very interesting point about sheared flows and stretched field lines came up in my discussion with Chris this afternoon -- it's very cool physics and seems to be borne out by simulations from Elena Belova, our collaborator at PPPL. Chris mentioned that this is something that has yet to be discussed in an SSX thesis -- I think I'd like to include it in my talk this Friday.
Speaking of which, I will be giving a thesis talk on Friday at 4:30 in Cuniff Lecture Hall (SCI 199). I am the first speaker scheduled (I was supposed to go last week, but was in Annapolis), and I will be followed by Jessica Gersh, who will give what I expect to be a superb talk on her experimental liquid crystal research, and Ken Patton, who will give a theory talk about the foundations of quantum mechanics. People should come! These talks are intended to be accessible... they should be interesting, even if you're not a physics student.
Now the question arises: should I use LaTeX or PowerPoint to prepare my slides? While it would be great for equations, I have never prepared presentations in LaTeX, and this would take some time to get used to. On the other hand, I have always hated using PowerPoint, and have used it so little I'm not sure I know much about it anymore. But then, our group already has a lot of prepared PowerPoint slides with things like pictures of SSX, schematic diagrams, and typical plasma parameters, which I could probably draw on.
Some things are in place. My theory section is mostly complete; I spent some time talking to Chris this afternoon, and he gave me useful suggestions for discussing how flows can stabilize various MHD instabilities, and for discussing MHD equilibria in general. Over the last few days, I've spent a lot of time reading and writing about prior laboratory reconnection experiments (UCLA LPD, Tokyo TS-3, Princeton MRX). I might have gone a little overboard, particularly with MRX, but it's really interesting. So the remaining areas of prior work that need to be filled in are things about astrophysical observations other than SOHO/SUMER (although as a physicist I don't plan to go into nearly as much detail about the astrophysics as I did with the lab experiments), and a discussion of previous ion doppler spectroscopy experiments in plasmas. It might also be good, although perhaps not essential, to discuss recent computational studies of reconnection (e.g. Shay et al).
However, a lot of work needs to be done for the experimental methods, results, and discussion sections. These will take a long time. One very interesting point about sheared flows and stretched field lines came up in my discussion with Chris this afternoon -- it's very cool physics and seems to be borne out by simulations from Elena Belova, our collaborator at PPPL. Chris mentioned that this is something that has yet to be discussed in an SSX thesis -- I think I'd like to include it in my talk this Friday.
Speaking of which, I will be giving a thesis talk on Friday at 4:30 in Cuniff Lecture Hall (SCI 199). I am the first speaker scheduled (I was supposed to go last week, but was in Annapolis), and I will be followed by Jessica Gersh, who will give what I expect to be a superb talk on her experimental liquid crystal research, and Ken Patton, who will give a theory talk about the foundations of quantum mechanics. People should come! These talks are intended to be accessible... they should be interesting, even if you're not a physics student.
Now the question arises: should I use LaTeX or PowerPoint to prepare my slides? While it would be great for equations, I have never prepared presentations in LaTeX, and this would take some time to get used to. On the other hand, I have always hated using PowerPoint, and have used it so little I'm not sure I know much about it anymore. But then, our group already has a lot of prepared PowerPoint slides with things like pictures of SSX, schematic diagrams, and typical plasma parameters, which I could probably draw on.
