Anthony Bell FRS
Senior Research Fellow; Emeritus Professor in Physics
After a PhD in Radio Astronomy in Cambridge, Tony Bell worked on radar signal processing with Marconi before moving to the Central Laser Facility as a laser-plasma theorist.
In 1985 he was appointed to a lectureship in the Plasma Group at Imperial College. In 2007, following two years with the Methodist Church, he moved to a joint appointment between the Clarendon Laboratory and the Central Laser Facility.
His research encompasses laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. He wrote one of four independent papers proposing the theory of cosmic ray acceleration by shocks. He showed how strong magnetic field is generated during particle acceleration and how it enables cosmic ray acceleration to high energy. He initiated the theory of non-local transport for heat flow in Inertial Confinement Fusion, explained the collimation of laser-produced energetic electrons by resistively generated magnetic field, and with John Kirk demonstrated the possibility of electron-positron pair production in ultra-high intensity laser-plasma interactions.
He has been awarded the Hoyle Prize of the Institute of Physics and the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
After a PhD in Radio Astronomy in Cambridge, Tony Bell worked on radar signal processing with Marconi before moving to the Central Laser Facility as a laser-plasma theorist. In 1985 he was appointed to a lectureship in the Plasma Group at Imperial College. In 2007, following two years with the Methodist Church, he moved to a joint appointment between the Clarendon Laboratory and the Central Laser Facility.
His research encompasses laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. He wrote one of four independent papers proposing the theory of cosmic ray acceleration by shocks. He showed how strong magnetic field is generated during particle acceleration and how it enables cosmic ray acceleration to high energy. He initiated the theory of non-local transport for heat flow in Inertial Confinement Fusion, explained the collimation of laser-produced energetic electrons by resistively generated magnetic field, and with John Kirk demonstrated the possibility of electron-positron pair production in ultra-high intensity laser-plasma interactions.
He has been awarded the Hoyle Prize of the Institute of Physics and the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.
For more information, see Professor Bell’s departmental web page.
Publications
‘Fornax A, Centaurus A and other radio galaxies as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays’
James H Matthews, Anthony R Bell, Katherine M Blundell, AT Araudo
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Oxford University Press 479:1 (2018) L76-L80
‘Electron acceleration by wave turbulence in a magnetized plasma’
Alexandra Rigby, F Cruz, B Albertazzi, R Bamford, A Bell, JE Cross, F Fraschetti, P Graham, Y Hara, PM Kozlowski, Y Kuramitsu, DQ Lamb, S Lebedev, F Miniati, T Morita, M Oliver, B Reville, Y Sakawa, S Sarkar, C Spindloe, R Trines, R Bingham, M Koenig, Gianluca Gregori
Nature Physics Springer Nature 14 (2018) 475-479
‘Laboratory evidence of dynamo amplification of magnetic fields in a turbulent plasma’
P Tzeferacos, Alexandra Rigby, A Bott, A Bell, R Bingham, A Casner, F Cattaneo, EM Churazov, J Emig, F Fiuza, CB Forest, J Foster, C Graziani, J Katz, M Koenig, CK Li, Jena Meinecke, R Petrasso, HS Park, BA Remington, JS Ross, D Ryu, D Ryutov, TG White, B Reville
Nature Communications Springer Nature 9 (2018) 591
‘Turbulent amplification of magnetic field and diffusive shock acceleration of cosmic rays’
AR Bell
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 353 (2), 550-558
‘The acceleration of cosmic rays in shock fronts–I’
AR Bell
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 182 (2), 147-156