Scott Hsu's Caltech Webpage

Welcome to Scott Hsu's Webpage

Los Alamos National Laboratory
Mailstop E526
Los Alamos, NM 87544

office: (505) 667-3386
fax: (505) 665-3552
email: scotthsu@UCLAlumni.net

Until November, 2002, I was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech in the Department of Applied Physics, working with Prof. Paul Bellan on spheromaks and basic plasma physics experiments. Before coming to Caltech, I was in graduate school in plasma physics at Princeton University (Ph.D., 2000; M.A., 1995). Before that, I was an undergraduate student at UCLA (B.S., 1993) in electrical engineering. In December, 2002, I joined the P-24 Plasma Physics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico as a Frederick Reines Fellow in Experimental Sciences. At Los Alamos, I am continuing to do research in experimental plasma physics with applications towards fusion energy and plasma astrophysics.

If you are wondering "What is a plasma?" then click here to read a good essay entitled "The Pervasive Plasma State" by science writer James Glanz.

Research

List of research publications (reprints available for download)

Basic experiments on spheromaks (2/00-11/02)
The spheromak is an interesting plasma configuration which has potential applications in magnetic fusion energy, and it also serves as a good testbed for understanding physical phenomena related to space plasma physics and plasma astrophysics. In particular we are focused on understanding the details of spheromak formation.
- S. C. Hsu and P. M. Bellan, Physical Review Letters 90, 215002 (2003) (pdf 393 kB)
- S. C. Hsu and P. M. Bellan, IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science 30, 10 (2002) (pdf 200 kB)
- Quicktime movie (675 kB) of helical instability (get Quicktime)
- Physics News Update press release
Laboratory study of accretion disk magnetic dynamics and astrophysical jet formation (12/00-11/02)
Accretion disks and astrophysical jets are curious enigmas of the distant universe. They are both associated with such exotic objects as black holes and the cores of galaxies. The formation of astrophysical jets is a longstanding unsolved problem. We model the magnetic dynamics of accretion disks and jets in our spheromak experiment, and have demonstrated the formation of collimated plasma structures, the helical instability of these structures, and the detachment of these structures from the disk electrodes.
- S. C. Hsu and P. M. Bellan, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 334, 257 (2002) (pdf 836 kB)
- Quicktime movie (670 kB) of jet formation in lab experiment
- Caltech press release
Ph.D. Dissertation Research (8/95-1/2000)
I studied how plasmas interact with magnetic fields, especially the transfer of energy from magnetic field to plasma ions when magnetic field is dissipated during a process called magnetic reconnection. This research was part of the overall body of work recognized by the 2002 Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research, given by the American Physical Society. Experiments were performed at PPPL on the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX).
- Experimental Study of Ion Heating and Acceleration During Magnetic Reconnection (thesis, 2.9MB pdf)
- S. C. Hsu et al., Physical Review Letters 84, 3859 (2000) (pdf 124 kB)
- S. C. Hsu et al., Physics of Plasmas 8, 1916 (2001) (pdf 221 kB)

My research has been supported by:
1. DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Fellowship (9/93-8/96)
2. NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (7/97-1/00)
3. DOE Fusion Energy Postdoctoral Research Program (2/00-2/02)

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Last modified on March 25, 2003.

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