Malcolm Haines

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Malcolm Golby Haines (born October 12, 1936 in Belfast , † January 13, 2013 in Cambridge, UK ) was a British plasma physicist . He studied at Imperial College and was a lecturer from 1960 , senior lecturer from 1967 and later professor of physics at Imperial College. In 2002 he retired, but was still active in research.

After Russian scientists led by Valentin Smirnow had achieved a breakthrough in plasma physics by using rod grids in Z-pinch arrangements, Haines optimized the grids and other experimental parameters and undertook theoretical simulations of the implosion processes . They were tested on the Magpie experiment (Mega Ampere Generator for Plasma Implosion Experiments) at Imperial College. The method revolutionized the research of inertial fusion with Z-pinch arrangements (and their use as the strongest known X-ray sources) up to the construction of the Z-machine at Sandia National Laboratories under Tom Sanford .

In 2006 he and colleagues proposed a model to explain the record temperatures of 2 to 3 billion Kelvin generated in the Z machine - the eddies formed by the numerous instabilities of the intense magnetic field are slowed down in the dense plasma and transfer their energy to the ions.

In 1995 he became a Fellow of the American Physical Society . In 2005 he received the Hannes Alfvén Prize with Tom Sanford and Valentin Smirnow .

Web links

  • Karl Krushelnick, Bucker Dangor, Pace Van Devender and Farhat Beg: Obituary of Malcolm Haines (1936-2013) . In: Physics Today . tape 66 , no. 2 , February 5, 2013, doi : 10.1063 / PT.4.1725 .
  • Professor Malcolm Haines . In: The Times . March 8, 2013 (English, thetimes.co.uk - obituary with picture; text only accessible with registration).
  • Jo Lister: Award of the 2005 Hannes Alfvén Prize of the European Physical Society to Malcolm Haines, Tom Sanford and Valentin Smirnov . In: Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion . tape 47 , 12B, 2005, doi : 10.1088 / 0741-3335 / 47 / 12B / E02 (English, iop.org ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth and death dates according to obituary in Physics Today , see web links.
  2. ↑ MAGPIE Experiments. Imperial College, archived from the original on October 14, 2006 .;
  3. ↑ World of Physics: Heat record in the laboratory - why it gets so hot in the plasma and effectively emits X-rays , 2006.
  4. ↑ Haines, LePell, Coverdale, B. Jones, C. Deeney, J. Apruzese Ion Viscous Heating in a Magnetohydrodynamically Unstable Z Pinch at Over 2 × Kelvin , Phys. Rev. Letters, Volume 96, 2006, page 075003, abstract
personal data
SURNAME Haines, Malcolm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haines, Malcolm G.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British physicist
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Belfast
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2013
Place of death Cambridge, UK