Prof. Dr. Maria Elena Innocenti
We study fundamental aspects in theoretical plasma physics with particular attention to space and astrophysical applications. A key aspect in our research is the interplay between the vastly disparate scales typical of these environments. Examples for scale interactions are the heat flux regulation over the entire heliosphere by electron-scale kinetic instabilities, or large-scale reconfiguration of the magnetic field by reconnection events that are triggered at the electron scale.
We develop, implement and run specialized computational models for high-performance computing that address this multi-scale nature of mostly collisionless plasmas.
We are part of a global research community that brings together top experts in observational, theoretical and computational plasma physics.