Astrophysical Plasmas from the Sun to Black Holes | 9am Tue, Feb 3, 2026

[Grigory Bronevetsky]

Modeling Talks

Astrophysical Plasmas from the Sun to Black Holes Fabio Bacchini, KU Leuven Tues, Feb 3, 2026 | 9am PT Meet | Youtube Stream Hi all, The presentation will be via Meet and all questions will be addressed there. If you cannot attend live, the event will be recorded and can be found afterward at https://sites.google.com/modelingtalks.org/entry/astrophysical-plasmas-from-the-sun-to-black-holes More information on previous and future talks: https://sites.google.com/modelingtalks.org/entry/home Abstract: Everybody knows that matter on Earth can be commonly found in three states: solid, liquid, and gas. But if we consider the Universe in which we live, 99% of all matter exists in a fourth state, called "plasma": a gas so hot and dilute that electrons are free to escape the electric pull of atomic nuclei. All the stars in the Universe are made of plasma, which also fills the interstellar and intergalactic space; plasmas are also found around black holes and neutron stars; and gigantic jets of plasma moving nearly at the speed of light protrude from the center of many galaxies and extend for hundreds of thousands of light years. Studying astrophysical plasmas is then of prime importance to understand many fundamental processes occurring everywhere in our Universe.  And yet, the study of plasmas is often very difficult: the equations that govern the plasma dynamics are extremely complicated, and usually can only be solved with the help of supercomputers carrying out calculations on thousands of CPUs. In this talk, I will review the basic theory of plasmas, by linking to phenomena that we commonly observe in many astrophysical environments, from our own Sun to the surroundings of supermassive black holes. I will describe the governing equations of plasma dynamics, and then move onto more detailed topics: the Sun's atmosphere, the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere, and the surroundings of black holes and neutron stars. Bio: Fabio Bacchini  is Assistant Professor at the Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics of KU Leuven (Belgium). In his work, he designs and applies numerical simulations on supercomputers to address the most relevant questions in astrophysics concerning space plasmas. His research covers a wide range of astrophysical scenarios, from the heliosphere and near-Earth environment to the surroundings of black holes and neutron stars.