Archie Bott

I am a scientific researcher in the Department of Physics who studies the fundamental properties of hot, ionised gases (`plasmas’). This, in one sense, is a fulfilling realisation of my childhood dream to help make nuclear fusion power a reality. My path towards this point wasn’t exactly direct, though! Inspired by a wonderful teacher at school, I studied mathematics as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge. Towards the end of my third year, an unexpected conversation with an old friend reminded me of my more youthful aspirations, so I then embarked upon a DPhil in Atomic and Laser Physics at Merton College, Oxford, in 2015, specialising in magnetised, turbulent laser-plasmas. After completing my thesis, my next position was working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University (USA). This left me well placed to start a Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) in Autumn 2022 at Oxford, studying the basic physics of a type of plasma which is common in astrophysical environments and fusion-relevant laser-plasma experiments.

My Fellowship is primarily a research position, but I currently tutor some Oxford undergraduates in several core physics disciplines (e.g. electromagnetism and optics), and I am establishing a new research group (including graduate students and postdoctoral researchers) over the next few years.

My specialised research interests include magnetised plasma dynamics, plasma turbulence, plasma dynamo processes, and so-called laboratory astrophysics. The primary goal of my FLF programme in Oxford is to characterise systematically the anomalous material properties of magnetised, weakly collisional plasmas. This extreme type of plasma is quite unlike the plasma and gas usually found in terrestrial contexts because of its complicated microphysics, and so classical plasma models are typically inadequate. Constructing new models should help address several long-standing astrophysical puzzles, refine interpretations of astronomical observations, and aid efforts to realise laser-fusion power.

A.F.A. Bott, P. Tzeferacos, L. Chen, C.A.J. Palmer, A. Rigby, A. R. Bell, R. Bingham, A. Birkel, C. Graziani, D.H. Froula, J. Katz, M. Koenig, M.W. Kunz, C.-K. Li, R. Petrasso, H-S. Park, B. Reville, J.S. Ross, D. Ryu, F. Séguin, T.G. White, A.A. Schekochihin, D.Q. Lamb, G. Gregori. `Insensitivity of a turbulent laser-plasma dynamo to initial conditions’. Matter Radiat. Extremes 7, 046901 (2022).

J. Meinecke, P. Tzeferacos, S. Ross, A.F.A. Bott, S. Feister, H.-S. Park, A. R.Bell, R. Blandford, R.L. Berger, R. Bingham, A. Casner, L. E. Chen, J. Foster, D.H. Froula, C. Goyon, D. Kalantar, M. Koenig, B. Lahmann, C.-K. Li, P. Michel, C.A. J. Palmer, R. Petrasso, H. Poole, B. Remington, B. Reville, A. Rigby, D. Ryu, D. Ryutov, G. Swadling, A. Zylstra, F. Miniati, S. Sarkar, A.A. Schekochihin, D. Q. Lamb, G. Gregori. `Strong suppression of heat conduction in a laboratory replica of galaxy-cluster turbulent plasmas’. Sci. Adv. 8, eabj6799 (2022).  



A.F.A. Bott, L. Arzamasskiy, M.W. Kunz, E. Quataert, J. Squire. `Adaptive critical balance and firehose instability in an expanding, turbulent, collisionless plasma’. Astrophys. J. Lett. 922, L35 (2021)



A.F.A. Bott, L. Chen, G. Boutoux, T. Caillaud, A. Duval, M. Koenig, B. Khiar, I. Lantuéjoul, L. Le-Deroff, B. Reville, R. Rosch, D. Ryu, C. Spindloe, B. Vauzour, B.Villette, A.A. Schekochihin, D.Q. Lamb, P. Tzeferacos, G. Gregori, A. Casner. `Inefficient magnetic-field amplification in supersonic laser-plasma turbulence’. Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 175002 (2021)

A.F.A. Bott, P. Tzeferacos, L. Chen, C.A.J. Palmer, A. Rigby, A. R. Bell, R. Bingham, A. Birkel, C. Graziani, D.H. Froula, J. Katz, M. Koenig, M.W. Kunz, C.-K. Li, J. Meinecke, F. Miniati, R. Petrasso, H-S. Park, B.A. Remington, B. Reville, J.S. Ross, D. Ryu, D. Ryutov, F. Séguin, T.G. White, A.A. Schekochihin, D.Q. Lamb, G. Gregori. `Time resolved turbulent dynamo in a laser-plasma’. Proc. Nat. Acad Sci. 118, e2015729118 (2021).