Dr Pedro Mafa, a Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, serves as the representative of UKZN within the CERN ATLAS collaboration. He is a CERN ATLAS Qualified Author.
Research Interests
Relativistic astrophysics: Finding new exact solutions to the Einstein field equations for compact objects like neutron and quark stars, including the effects of dark matter accretion.
Cosmic ray signals: Analysing the polarisation of radio signals generated by high-energy cosmic rays.
Astrophysical fluid dynamics: Simulating large-scale cosmic phenomena such as stellar winds, accretion disks, supernovae, and relativistic jets.
CFD for high-energy physics: Utilising CFD to optimise temperature and humidity in the ATLAS ITk detector.
CFD for biomedical: Developing models to study the transmission of airborne pathogens (like COVID-19 or TB) via droplets in high-risk environments.
CFD for industrial processes: Utilising computational fluid dynamics to optimise heat transfer, pasteurisation, sterilisation, and packaging in the food industry.
High-energy physics analysis: utilising data from the ATLAS experiment to probe fundamental physics.
