Welcome to the website of the extreme plasma physics team, the theory and simulation team of the Group for Lasers and Plasmas of the Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear at Instituto Superior Técnico.
Our team is funded by the European Research Council through the Advanced Grant "Accelerates" (ERC-AdG2010 no. 267841) and the Advanced Grant “InPairs” (ERC-AdG2015).
Jorge Vieira, an IPFN researcher and Associate Professor in the Physics Department at Instituto Superior Técnico, has reached an important milestone in his academic journey by successfully completing his Aggregation in Physics. The two-day examination took place on January 13th and 14th, 2025, at IST.
The exam featured two main components: a Curricular Unit Report on the Introduction to Plasma Physics course and a seminar titled…
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The project Realistic Simulations of Relativistic Plasmas in Astrophysical and Laboratory Environments, led by GoLP researchers Thales Silva and Pablo Bilbao, has been awarded 30 million CPU core hours on the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer through the Rede Nacional de Computação Avançada. This allocation will support cutting-edge research into the behavior of relativistic plasmas under extreme conditions, with applications to both astrophysical phenomena and laboratory experiments.
Relativistic…
Read more- Optimizing proton acceleration using hollow laser pulses and a double-layer target: effects of focal spot position and polarization, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 67 (2025) p. 015027C. Willim, L. O. Silva, J. Vieira
- Particle-in-cell simulations of pulsar magnetospheres: Transition between electrosphere and force-free regimes, Astronomy & Astrophysics 690 (2024) p. A229F. Cruz , T. Grismayer, R. Torres, A. Y. Chen, A. Spitkovsky, R. A. Fonseca, and L. O. Silva
- Direct laser acceleration in varying plasma density profiles, New Journal of Physics 26 (2024) p. 093002Robert Babjak, Bertrand Martinez, Miroslav Krus, Marija Vranic
- Laboratory Study of Magnetic Reconnection in Lunar-relevant Mini-magnetospheres, The Astrophysical Journal 969 (2024) p. 124Lucas Rovige, Filipe D. Cruz, Robert S. Dorst, Jessica J. Pilgram, Carmen G. Constantin, Stephen Vincena, Fábio Cruz, Luis O. Silva, Christoph Niemann, and Derek B. Schaeffer
