The 43rd European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics was held in Leuven, Belgium, on 4th–8th July 2016, hosted by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. As usual the conference, with 640 registered participants, brought together from all over the world physicists and engineers working on all aspects of plasma physics. The programme featured plenary sessions to improve the communication across the different plasma physics communities and 4 parallel sessions on Magnetic Confinement Fusion (MCF), Beam Plasmas and Inertial Fusion (BPIF), Low Temperature and Dusty Plasmas (LTDP) and Basic Plasmas and Space and Astrophysical Plasmas (BPSA), plus a number of joint sessions between two groups at a time. An evening session dedicated to stellarators was held to underline the importance for Europe of the start of operation of the major European device W7-X in Greifswald.
This special issue of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion contains the peer-reviewed papers from plenary and invited presentations, including those in the evening session. They form a stimulating collection of papers that, together with the proceedings of the contributed papers available at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2016PAP/html/, will help the participants to review the immense richness of information presented at the conference, and will allow those who have not attended to get a flavour of the progress in the various areas.
The programme committee (PC), which I had the honour to chair, worked with enthusiasm and dedication to put together a high quality program. I am particularly grateful to the sub-chairs of the 4 groups, G Giruzzi (CEA, FR) for MCF, M Fajardo (IST, PT) for BPIF, E Amato (Arcetri Observatory, IT) for BPSA and T Gans (University of York, UK) for LTDP, for their intensive work and collaborative spirit, which allowed to achieve a good interdisciplinary character of the conference, as recommended by the EPS plasma physics division Board. We received 290 suggestions for invited talks from the whole community, including proposals from APS-DPP and AAPPS-DPP, who were active members of the PC, and proposals from other divisions of EPS, such as Quantum and Electro-Optics and Solar Physics. Out of these, 79 between plenary and invited talks were selected, and this issue collects over 50 papers from these presentations. A special thanks is due to Boudewijn van Milligen (CIEMAT, ES) for his commitment in handling the online computer system that is used in the abstract submissions and on-line proceedings archiving.
I am very grateful to our host KU Leuven for providing such a beautiful environment for our conference. It was very inspiring to see many enthusiastic young people discussing their work under the vaults of the beautiful university hall, which has seen so much culture developing during many centuries. The LOC, chaired by S Poedts, did a splendid job in organizing all aspects, including the conference web page, the forum for invited proposals, handling the registrations and all the practical arrangements for the sessions, and the organization of many social activities. I am particularly indebted to the LOC secretary N Vennekens for her hard work and commitment. It was a pleasure to work with her. The lunchtime meeting Women in Plasma Physics is now a regular feature of the conference with a friendly exchange of experiences.
Last, but not least, on behalf of the PC I would like to thank all the participants, whose work made possible the success of the conference.
Outstanding scientists honored at the 43rd European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics
The 2016 Hannes Alfvén Prize was awarded by the Board of the Plasma Physics Division of the EPS to Sergei Bulanov (National Institute for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, Japan, and A M Prokhorov Institute of General Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia) and Hartmut Zohm (Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Germany) 'for their experimental and theoretical contributions to the development of large-scale next-step devices in high-temperature plasma physics research'. Sergei Bulanov is one of the most influential theoretical physicists in the field of modern ultra-intense laser-plasma interaction, known as 'relativistic plasma optics'. After introducing in the late 90s the concept of transverse-wake wave breaking that paved the way towards later experimental breakthroughs in laser electron acceleration, he focused his interest to high-field physics, at higher and higher laser intensities. He proposed, in particular, the innovative 'flying mirror' scheme to intensify laser light and achieve the quantum electro-dynamics critical field and identified a novel mechanism to efficiently accelerate relativistic ions by radiation pressure towards multi-GeV energies. These scientific visions of Sergei Bulanov have motivated the efforts towards a new generation of laser facilities, especially in Europe the Extreme Light Infrastructure. Another important contribution of Sergei Bulanov to plasma physics is in the field of magnetic reconnection, a topic which bridges the gap between the two major pillars of the EPS Plasma Physics Division: high-temperature plasmas and astrophysical plasmas. Hartmut Zohm pioneered the use of electron cyclotron resonance current drive for the stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes (NTM) which are considered as a substantial threat for tokamak plasma confinement, especially through limitation of the reachable plasma pressure and occurrence of current disruptions. After derivation of analytical expressions for all quantities at stake and identification of an elegant solution, Hartmut Zohm and his team demonstrated—for the first time—NTM control on ASDEX Upgrade in 1999 thanks to localized and phased injection of micro-waves into the centre of an emerging magnetic island. The success was ensured by a wide range of expertise perfectly mastered by Hartmut Zohm, from theoretical to experimental plasma physics and technology. These achievements have not only shaped the field but have been implemented on numerous existing tokamaks and are planned as tools on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and probably on future demonstration power plants. Hartmut Zohm has also made major contributions to fusion power plant physics and design.
The 2016 EPS Plasma Physics Innovation Prize was awarded to Klaus-Dieter Weltmann and Thomas von Woedtke (Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Germany) 'for their pioneering work in the field of plasma medicine'. It recognizes their outstanding and novel contributions to the basic understanding of cold non-thermal plasma sources, operated at atmospheric pressure, and of their biological effects. It is an appreciation of their visionary combination of plasma physics and technology, on one hand, and, on the other hand, life science and medicine. The activities of Klaus-Dieter Weltmann, Thomas von Woedtke and their collaborators at INP Greifswald and Greifswald University span various therapeutic applications, from wound healing and dermatology to cancer treatment. They have developed and fully characterized numerous devices, not only in terms of plasma properties (temperature, UV radiation or electromagnetic fields) but also in terms of biological effects on cells and tissues. One of these devices—kINPen MED®—based on an argon plasma jet, received in March 2013 CE marking for local treatment of infected wounds and pathogen-induced skin diseases. It is currently commercialized by a German start-up, which indicates the success of the strategy, uniting basic research in plasma physics, life sciences and technology under one roof, followed by our two prize's recipients. Their pioneering work has seeded a rapidly growing field and the coming years will surely result in additional spin-offs from cold plasma technology into life science.
The 2016 EPS Plasma Physics Division PhD Research Award has been judged by an external committee, comprising Carlos Alejaldre, Fabrice Doveil, Christine Labaune and Guido van Oost, who examined all the candidatures in a process managed by Elisabeth Wolfrum representing the EPS Plasma Physics Division. Based on their conclusions, this year's award goes to Bastien Bruneau (LPICM, FR) for his PhD thesis on the 'control of radio frequency capacitively coupled plasma asymmetries using Tailored Voltage Waveforms', Arnaud Colaitis (CELIA, FR) for his PhD thesis on a 'multiscale description of the Laser-Plasma Interaction, application to the physics of shock ignition in Inertial Confinement Fusion' and Natasha Jeffrey (U Glasgow, UK) for her PhD thesis on the 'spatial, spectral and polarization properties of solar flare x-ray sources'.
The 2016 Landau Spitzer Award was jointly awarded to a group of four plasma physicists, John Berkery (Columbia University, USA), Steven Sabbagh (Columbia University, USA), Yueqiang Liu (CCFE, UK), and Holger Reimerdes (EPFL, CH), for their 'seminal joint research providing key understanding and quantitative verification of global mode stability in experimental high performance tokamak plasmas, based on drift-kinetic MHD theory, and made possible by strong and essential partnership between Europe and the USA'. The panel was composed of Richard Dendy (chair), Stefano Atzeni and Christoph Hollenstein, representing EPS, David Meyerhofer (vice-chair), Alain Brizard and Jim Hanson, representing APS.
The 2015 EPS autumnal Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics was also awarded to Sibylle Günter (IPP, DE) for 'her leading role in the study of the effects of microscopic physics on the large-scale behavior and stability of hot magnetized plasmas in fusion devices. With her solid scientific record, many leadership roles and mentoring of researchers and students, she is a model for women physicists'.
From left to right: S Jacquemot, K-D Weltmann, T von Woedtke, S Sabbagh, H Reimerdes, S Günther, H Zohm, S Bulanov, N Jeffrey, B Bruneau (insert) and A Colaitis.
EPS/PPCF/IUPAP Student Poster Prizes were attributed during the conference to:
- Arkaprava Bokshi (York University, UK) for a poster entitled 'The self-consistent response of linear micro-instabilities to profile evolution',
- Mark Coughlan (QUB, UK) for a poster entitled 'Ultrafast dynamics of crystals irradiated by few-ps proton pulses',
- Cristian Sommariva (CEA/IRFM, FR) for a poster entitled 'Modeling runaway electron dynamics in realistic fields from 3D nonlinear MHD disruption simulations',
- Hannah Willett (York University, UK) for a poster entitled 'The role of plasma instabilities in the onset of detachment in the York Linear Plasma Device'.
In addition, the 12th Itoh Project Prize in Plasma Turbulence was awarded by a selection committee, composed of S-I Itoh (chair, Japan), A Fujisawa (Japan), C Hidalgo (Spain), K Itoh (Japan), P Ricci (Switzerland) and R Weynants (Belgium), to Anna Medvedeva (IPP, CEA/IRFM, IJL & TU Munich) for her work 'Density profile and turbulence evolution during L-H transitions studied with the ultra-fast swept reflectometer on ASDEX Upgrade'. Two other studentst were highly recommended: Alexander Simon Thrysøe (DTU, DK) for 'Gas puff fuelling simulation with a combined neutral/HESEL model' and Alexander Lebschy (IPP, TU Munich, DE) for 'Measurement of the E × B velocity across the LOC-SOC transition'.
Finally, the Beam Plasma and Inertial Fusion section of the Division also took the opportunity of the conference to announce that the 2016 Edouard Fabre Prize, for contributions to the physics of laser-driven inertial confinement fusion and laser-produced plasmas, is awarded to Jérôme Faure (LOA, FR) for 'his remarkable experimental works in developing laser-plasma accelerators, demonstrating the possibility by interacting intense laser pulses with a gas target to accelerate electrons in extremely short distances and to produce high quality electron beam'. The prize is supported by the COST action MP1208.