Accepted my offer to study for a PhD!
In October 2025 I will begin a new chapter in my life and study towards my PhD under the supervision of Dr Peter Wyper.
We aim to investigate the theoretical origins of solar flares and magnetic switchbacks, which falls under the realm of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). I am delighted to be joining the applied maths group in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Durham University.
More information on the history/motivation for stuying solar flares can be found on NASA’s website. Otherwise, you can be satisfied with my own interest in this project below.
The solar wind is a flux of charged particles emmited by the Sun, causing magnetic turbulence as it radiates through the solar system. This turbulance can be studied, and has been via NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) mission launched in 2018.
The PSP orbits the Sun and will fly as close as within 6.16 million kilometres of its surface in order to better study its structure. Current observations reveal an abundance of so-called magnetic switchbacks in the wind near to the surface—rapid switches in the surrounding magnetic field that would otherwise be radial.
Understanding what these are and how they arrive could help us decipher the origins of solar wind, and better yet help to understand the coronal magnetic field and its impact on the heliosphere.
In the near-Sun environment, one can study the patterns of solar wind via magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). It appears through various studies that certain patches of the solar wind exhibit Alfvénic behaviours—waves with in-phase oscillations of the plasma velocity and magentic field.
Alfvén waves, and in particular torsional Alfvén waves, are very well understood, and their evolution within the solar wind could be the key to understanding the origin of switchbacks.
This research project will build upon work published by Peter himself, who has explored via simulation Alfvén waves launched into the solar wind by intermittent (bursty) interchange reconnection and how they may be related to magnetic switchbacks.
A promising explanation emerges from a simulation with a specific expanding wind configuration, showing these Alfvén waves becoming steeper as they permeate the solar system. These seem to produce ‘broad’ switchbacks and can survive out to beyond 30 solar radii.
The key to my research will begin with investigating analytical solutions of magnetic switchbacks in three dimensions and learning to use an appropriate MHD code (namely ARMS or LARE) for future numerical solutions.
With this MHD code I will run test simuations in both two and three dimensions to test theories of the formation and evolutions of switchbacks—this would then be compared with analytical results, and further discussions will be made on the expectations and the significance of newfound data within the model.
I will most likely pursue further formation scenarios and discuss their behaviour based on these investigations. These could include, for example, conducting simulations with waves launched by more realistic processess like interchange reconnection, or investigating the merging of such waves.
Of course, my journey will end with summarising the achievements of the research and published results by writing a PhD thesis.
They affect satellites, they affect our emotions, and so on, but they also affect the nature of the light that is coming to us, which is kind of the way that the DNA unfolds. And on those levels hardly anyone really understands all of this, and I don’t either. —Drunvalo Melchizedek
Current research into these theoretical origins produces results that are comparable with the PSP mission. These are, however, in much need of verification. It therefore reveals a promising entry point for our research. The opportunity to work on and complete this project will enhance my coding ability, understanding of MHD, and the ability to apply the mathematics I have studied (in great detail!) at university.