Modelling Astrophysical Plasmas with iPIC3D: First Conference on Implicit PIC Simulations and Beyond

4 Feb 2026, 08:00 → 6 Feb 2026, 15:00 Europe/Zurich

Aula Wolfspoort (00.08) (Huis Bethlehem)

Fabio Bacchini (KU Leuven), Pranab Deka (KU Leuven)

We are pleased to welcome you to the first ever conference on Modelling Astrophysical Plasmas with iPIC3D: First Conference on Implicit PIC Simulations and Beyond at KU Leuven, Belgium, from the 4th to 6th of February, 2026. The conference will be in hybrid format (in-person + remote) and will feature a hands-on training session with iPIC3D (including energy-conserving algorithms) on CPUs and GPUs. We look forward to seeing you in Leuven!

Registration for in-person participation costs €50. This includes the cost of the conference dinner. Remote participation is free of charge. Please register latest by 15 January, 2026.

 

Conference Dinner: 5 February, 2026, 7 pm to 10 pm

To register for the conference, please follow this link. After registration, you will be forwarded to the payment page. Abstracts can be submitted at the bottom of this page.

 

Keynote Speakers:
Fabio Bacchini
Stefano Markidis
Francesco Pucci

Organising Committee:
Pranab J Deka
Fabio Bacchini
Silvia Ferro
Nicolas Moens
Clarissa Mora
Maximilien Péters de Bonhome 
Luca Pezzini
Nadja Reisinger
Paul Wilhelm 

URL: https://indico.global/e/kul-ipic3d

 

 

 

 

Sponsors

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Wednesday 4 February

08:00 → 09:00 Registration

09:00 → 09:15 Welcome

Convener: Pranab Deka (KU Leuven)

iPIC3D Introduction.pdf

09:15 → 09:50 iPIC3D: A Particle-in-Cell Code for Simulating Astrophysical Plasmas (Keynote Talk, online)

Speaker: Stefano Markidis (KTH Swedden)

09:50 → 10:25 Energy Conserving algorithms with iPIC3D (Keynote Talk)

Speaker: Fabio Bacchini (KU Leuven)

10:25 → 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 → 12:15 iPIC3D Session 1: Chair - Nicolas Moens

Conveners: George Miloshevich (KU Leuven), Felipe Nathan de Oliveira Lopes (KU Leuven), Rong Lin (Peking University)

11:00 Machine-Learning Closure of Kinetic Plasma Turbulence in the Earth’s Magnetosheath

Speaker: George Miloshevich (KU Leuven)

11:25 TBD

Speaker: Felipe Nathan de Oliveira Lopes (KU Leuven)

11:50 Generation of proton beams at switchback boundary-like rotational discontinuities in the solar wind (online)

Speaker: Rong Lin (Peking University)

12:15 → 13:45 Lunch

13:45 → 15:25 iPIC3D Session 2: Chair - Nadja Reisinger

Conveners: Agnieszka Wierzchucka, Lorenzo Sironi, Martin Pohl, Pablo Bilbao

13:45 PIC simulations of nonrelativistic high-Mach-number oblique shocks propagating in a turbulent medium

Speaker: Martin Pohl (University of Potsdam)

14:10 Double-Adiabatic Equations of State for Relativistic Plasmas

Speaker: Agnieszka Wierzchucka (Oxford University)

14:35 Non-linear X-mode propagation in highly magnetized pair plasmas

Speaker: Pablo Bilbao (University of Oxford)

15:00 Shock-generated particles and waves drive filaments on all scales (online)

Speaker: Lorenzo Sironi (Columbia University)

15:25 → 15:45 Coffee Break

15:45 → 17:00 iPIC3D Session 3: Chair - Silvia Ferro

Conveners: Giuseppe Arro, Liutauras Rusaitis, Luca Franci

15:45 Whistler-mode waves in the tail of Mercury’s magnetosphere: A numerical study

Speaker: Giulio Ballerini

16:10 Self-consistent generation of kinetic-scale magnetic holes driven by plasma turbulence (online)

Speaker: Giuseppe Arro

16:35 From Kinetic Scales to Global Transport: Plasma Energization in the Magnetotail

Speaker: Liutauras Rusaitis

Thursday 5 February

09:00 → 10:25 iPIC3D Session 4: Chair - Fabio Bacchini

Conveners: Francesco Pucci, Kirit Makwana, Pierre Henri

09:00 Electron physics with iPic3D (Keynote Talk)

Speaker: Francesco Pucci

09:35 Simulations of forced and decaying sub-ion scale turbulence with iPIC3D (online)

Speaker: Kirit Makwana

10:00 iPIC3D: Unveiling the Mysteries of Planetary and Cometary Magnetospheres Through Global Kinetic Simulations (online)

Speaker: Pierre Henri

10:25 → 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 → 12:15 iPIC3D Session 5: Chair - Maximilien Péters de Bonhome

Conveners: Luca Pezzini, Nadja Reisinger, Silvia Ferro

11:00 Plasma Mixing in Collisionless Plasmas Driven by the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability

Speaker: Silvia Ferro

11:25 TBD

Speaker: Luca Pezzini

11:50 Comparison of Particle Energy Distributions from Fully Kinetic Simulations and Observations of Magnetic Reconnection in Earth's Magnetotail

Speaker: Nadja Reisinger

12:15 → 13:45 Lunch

13:45 → 15:25 iPIC3D Session 6: Chair - Pranab J Deka

Conveners: Hongtao Liu, Immanuel Christopher Jebaraj, Jens Mahlmann, Jesse Vos, Maximilien Péters de Bonhome

13:45 Next-Generation Realism in Extreme Astrophysical Plasma Simulations with Entity (online)

Speaker: Jens Mahlmann

14:10 Zeltron: From Solar-Wind Expansion to Extreme Astrophysical Plasmas

Speakers: Jesse Vos, Maximilien Péters de Bonhome

14:35 Energy Conserving Semi-Lagrangian Scheme for plasma simulations

Speaker: Hongtao Liu

15:00 Balancing self-consistency and practical realism – Can we truly understand cross-scale energy transfer at shocks?

Speaker: Immanuel Jebaraj

15:25 → 15:45 Coffee Break

15:45 → 17:25 iPIC3D Session 7: Chair - Luca Pezzini

Conveners: Giulio Ballerini, Jaeyoung Park, Johan Sharma, Talha Arshad

15:45 Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) enabled semi-implicit PIC to study the onset of reconnection during substorms (online)

Speaker: Talha Arshad

16:10 The nature of electric field fluctuations in the near-Sun solar wind and its implication for the turbulent energy transfer at sub-ion scales

Speaker: Luca Franci

16:35 Formation of sub-ion scale current sheets in kinetic Alfvén wave turbulence using iPIC3D (online)

Speaker: Johan Sharma

17:00 Implicit PIC Simulations for Fusion Research (online)

Speaker: Jaeyoung Park

Friday 6 February

09:00 → 10:30 Hands-on Training with iPIC3D

Conveners: Prof. Fabio Bacchini (KU Leuven), Nicolas Moens, Paul Wilhelm, Pranab Deka (KU Leuven)

iPIC3D Hands-On LUMI.pdf

iPIC3D Hands-On VSC.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 → 12:15 Hands-on Training with iPIC3D

Conveners: Prof. Fabio Bacchini (KU Leuven), Nicolas Moens, Paul Wilhelm, Pranab Deka (KU Leuven)

iPIC3D Hands-On LUMI.pdf

iPIC3D Hands-On VSC.pdf

12:15 → 12:25 Conclusions and Outlook

Convener: Fabio Bacchini (KU Leuven)

12:25 → 12:30 Final Remarks

Convener: Pranab Deka (KU Leuven)

Final.pdf