Magnetic braids

Field-line helicity of a braided magnetic field, viewed in different cross-sections. The topology of contours and critical points is preserved, but the pattern appears simpler in the middle cross-section, and hence the 42 critical points are easier to find there. The topology of this pattern is important because it is also preserved (to leading order) in a resistive relaxation of the underlying magnetic field. Understanding what final states can be reached under such constraints is the theme of my Leverhulme Trust project...

Postdocs

Former postdocs:

• Prantika Bhowmik (2019-24; STFC) – now Assistant Professor at IISC Bangalore
• Long Chen (2017-20; Leverhulme Trust)
• Christopher Lowder (2015-17; US Air Force) – now Research Scientist at Southwest Research Institute, Boulder
• Marion Weinzierl (2014-17; US Air Force; STFC Impact Acceleration Account) - now Senior Research Software Engineer at University of Cambridge
• Sarah Edwards (2014-15; STFC Impact Acceleration Account + US Air Force)
• Christopher Prior (Addison-Wheeler fellowship) - now a permanent staff member in the group

PhD Students

Former students:

• Daining Xiao, Topological interpretations of open-field magnetic helicity, 2024.
• Oliver Rice, Eruptions and equilibria in the solar corona, 2024.
• Tim Whitbread, Optimized kinematic models for the solar magnetic cycle, 2019.

Research Grants

• Solar magnetic evolution and complexity: Dundee-Durham consortium (4/2022 to 3/2025), STFC grant ST/W00108X/1, PI.
• SWEEP: Space Weather Empirical Ensemble Package (10/2020 to 3/2023), STFC SWIMMR grant ST/V00235X/1, Co-I (PI: Huw Morgan, Aberystwyth).

Recent Meetings Organised

• STFC Introductory Course in Solar and Solar Terrestrial Physics, 22-27 Aug 2021, Durham University.
• UKMHD meeting, 20-21 Apr 2017, Durham University.
• ISSI Team: Global Non-Potential Magnetic Models of the Solar Corona, 2015-2017, Bern, Switzerland.
• Magnetic Reconnection: Where Now and Where Next?, 12 Dec 2014, Royal Astronomical Society, London (website).