Laboratory Astrophysics: Bringing the Universe down to Earth
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Event details
School of Physics, Engineering and Technology Webinar Series
From planets to stars to nebulae and beyond, the sky is filled with some of the most exotic and fascinating objects known to humanity. These objects are also some of the most mysterious, in part due to their complex nature, but also because their study escapes key aspects of the traditional scientific method. Astrophysics is largely confined to passive observation, whereas in traditional experimental physics we can actively explore systems by interacting with them. Laboratory astrophysics aims to bridge this technical gap by allowing us to explore actively astrophysical phenomena in the lab, manipulating material in states relevant to astrophysics in controlled ways. But how do we do this when the scales of size, temperature, density, magnetic field strength (any many other variables) involved in astrophysics are so vast? In this talk we will explore a some of the problems accessible to laboratory astrophysics, and also see how the understanding of nature it provides can lead to developments in our everyday lives.
About the speaker
Dr Andy Higginbotham is a Senior Lecturer in Laser-plasma Physics at the University of York. He completed his PhD in Atomic and Laser physics in 2010 and works in the fields of high pressure science and warm dense matter. He utilises the world’s brightest sources of x-rays to probe material in highly dynamic states with the aim of better understanding the behaviour of matter far from the conditions we typically encounter on Earths surface. He is currently deputy head of the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology.