56. Heidelberger Physik Graduiertentage

PLAYING WITH STARFIRE: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF FUSION

Felix Warmer

Nuclear fusion promises an almost paradoxical feat: producing energy by confining a plasma hotter than the core of the Sun within a carefully engineered magnetic cage. At temperatures of order one hundred million degrees, matter behaves in unfamiliar ways – particles spiral along magnetic field lines in complex orbits, collective instabilities erupt, and turbulence, as in many other fields, remains a persistent scientific headache. Fusion research lives at the intersection of elegant physical principles and brutal practical constraints, where back-of-the-envelope estimates meet multi-billion-euro devices.

This lecture series explores the art and science of nuclear fusion through the lens of basic plasma physics phenomena, the principles of magnetic confinement, and the technological challenges that arise when attempting to build a star on Earth. We will examine how simple ideas – charged particles in magnetic fields, energy balance, transport, and stability – lead to rich and often surprising behavior. Along the way, we will see how fusion brings together a plethora of scientific disciplines in the effort to realise a fusion reactor, and how theory, simulation, and experiment continuously inform one another.

This lecture series aims to illuminate why fusion is such a formidable scientific and technological challenge, why it continues to fascinate generations of physicists, and how attempts to tame Starfire on Earth keep pushing the boundaries of both fundamental physics and engineering – while also highlighting the role of emerging startup companies seeking to commercialise fusion.