Basic Plasma Research Group

About us

Nearly 99.99% of the observable universe consists of plasma. Yes, you read that correctly. While rare on Earth, when gazing skyward at night, you witness various stars illuminating the darkness. Most of these stars, along with the matter in between them, are, in fact, plasma. The Sun, lightning, auroras, and other phenomena visible to the naked eye are further examples of plasma.

Our 'Basic Plasma Research' group conducts fundamental research on the dynamics occurring in such plasma through theoretical, computational, and experimental methods. Group's 'Shivalik Plasma Laboratory' focuses on studying the dynamic properties of strongly coupled plasma, where interaction potential amongst the charged species is higher than their thermal energy. Currently, our research focuses on phase transitions, instabilities, turbulence, and viscoelastic fluid properties of strongly coupled plasmas using numerical simulations. We also investigated such fluid dynamics in our table-top experiments on dusty plasma. A few other projects we are involved in are 'Debris charging and their dynamical effects in plasma' and  'Use of atmospheric plasma in agriculture.'

The 'Shivalik Plasma Laboratory' is located at the Jagti campus of IIT Jammu on the outskirts of Jammu city, surrounded by Shivalik ranges. We are well connected to the rest of India through railways (Jammu Tawi station), flights (Jammu Airport), and highways (NH-44).