Teaching – David Pfefferlé Science and Research

A simple Vlasov-Poisson Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code

I was invited to give a tutorial at the ANU-MSI Mini-course/workshop on the application of computational mathematics to plasma physics, and I thought it would be instructive to design a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code from scratch and solve the simplest possible equation describing a plasma, namely the Vlasov-Poisson system in 1D. The idea was to illustrate: how simple, efficient and robust such numerical schemes are; how complex the non-linear phase-space dynamics

Having a go at Quantum Field Theory

Lectures on QFT I have been asked to contribute to a series of seminars and “informal discussions” about Quantum Field Theory (QFT). The group lead by Jingbo Wang from the Physics department of UWA is indeed interested in the connections between quantum random walks and the discretisation of the path integral formulation of QFT found in Lattice QCD. From the mathematical side, QFT is a fantastic playground for learning about