Pablo J. Bilbao

Projects/Interests

My work focuses on a few different topics within plasma physics, both fundamental and basic plasmas or mixed with more exotic physics, such as QED effects in extreme plasma physics. I am also interested in different perspectives and approaches, such as astrophysical plasmas, laboratory settings or astrolab experiments. Most of the work sits between theoretical and computational physics, running large-scale particle-in-cell simulations (with the OSIRIS PIC code).
Check below what I am/have been working on:

If you are interested in any of these topics send me an email.

Radiative cooled plasmas: kinetic theory and instabilities

Radiatively cooled plasmas are an exciting new topic. How do plasmas react when they are embedded in ultra-strong electromagnetic fields? This can happen both in the laboratory, i.e., lasers and high energy density plasmas can provide such an environtment. We recently found out that plasmas can be driven unstable via synchrotron cooling. And they can drive the electron cyclotron maser instability. Such a phenomena is exciting as it opens up the possibility of radiatively driven plasma kinetic instabilities and coherent maser radiation, which could have a great impact in understanding coherent radiation sources from astrophysical sources, such as FRBs and ppulsar emission.

Movie: Electron cyclotron maser instability driven by radiation reaction (click me!)

Pair plasma beam interactions in the lab: Fireball collaboration

Electron-positron plasmas, composed of matter-antimatter pairs, are naturally found in astrophysical environments such as pulsar magnetospheres and black hole accretion disks. These unique plasmas are shaped by intense electromagnetic fields and kinetic instabilities, offering insights into the complex dynamics of high-energy astrophysical sources. Recent experiments at CERN have created dense, relativistic pair beams, allowing us to study these instabilities in the laboratory (Nature Communications). My work focuses on using Particle-in-Cell simulations and theory to understand these processes, with future studies set to include strong-field QED effects.

Nonlinear wave dynamics in highly magnetized pair plasmas

One of the open puzzles in high-energy astrophysics is how the extremely bright, coherent radio emission from pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) manages to escape the intensely magnetized electron-positron plasma surrounding a neutron star, without being absorbed or dissipated along the way. In this project we study how large-amplitude electromagnetic waves propagate through such a strongly magnetized pair plasma, combining a new analytical wave theory with large-scale particle-in-cell simulations (again using OSIRIS) to follow the wave over the long distances relevant to real pulsar and FRB magnetospheres. The aim is to pin down which nonlinear and kinetic plasma processes ultimately decide the fate of these waves, and under which conditions they survive their journey outward, or are instead damped. A paper describing this work is currently in preparation; more details, and a link to the manuscript, will be added here once it is available.

Many of these projects have their roots in my PhD research. If you are curious, you can find my doctoral thesis here A small easter egg: the word count of my PhD thesis as a function of time. See the plot here.