Dr. Anneli Aitta

I am a member of Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge. I was there as a Research Fellow while holding a Daphne Jackson Returner Fellowship in the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics.

Contact Details:

Research Interests

I am interested in phase transitions, fluid flows, flow instabilities, their simple modelling and their applications for understanding some processes in the Earth Sciences. I love to combine high quality accurate experimental work with mathematical modelling.

My present research project is on ternary solidification and its geophysical applications. The experimental investigation is based on the H₂O-KNO₃-NaNO₃ ternary system.

• Computational Astrophysics Lab, RIKEN, Japan:
  Solidification temperature for the Earth's core melt at the core boundaries (9.11.2009).
• Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology:
  Solidification temperature for the Earth's core melt at the core boundaries (4.11.2009).
• Department of Geosciences, Princeton University:
  Iron melting curve with a tricritical point (17.5.2007).
• BP Institute, Cambridge University:
  Experimentally agreeable iron melting curve from bifurcation theory (18.11.2005).
• Department of Earth Sciences, Cambridge University:
  An Fe-Si-Ni solidification model and the planetary layering (10.11.2003).
• Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, DAMTP, Cambridge University:
  A three-component solidification model for the Earth's layering (2.3.2003).
  Solidification of ternary systems (7.3.2000).

My main publications are:

• The identity and quantity of the light matter on each side of the Earth's inner core boundary, A. Aitta, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 181, 132-140 (2010).
• Tricritical Points and Liquid-Solid Critical Lines, A. Aitta, European Women in Mathematics: Proceedings of the 13th General Meeting, ed. by C. Hobbs and S. Paycha, World Scientific, 93-102 (2010) or as eprint arXiv:0902.4578 2009.
• Iron melting curve with a tricritical point, A. Aitta, Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, 2006, 12015 (2006) or as a preprint http://arxiv.org/pdf/cond-mat/0701283.
• Changes in compositional convection account for the strength variations in the early Martian magnetic field, A. Aitta, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 8, 01866, 2006. A talk at the EGU - General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, April 2006.
• Temperature limits for the liquid cores of the rocky planetary bodies, A. Aitta, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 8, 01876, 2006. Presented at the EGU - General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, April 2006.
• Solidification temperature for iron and iron-rich melt at pressures in the Earth's core, A. Aitta, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 7, 06810, 2005. Presented at the EGU - General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, April 2005.
• Singularity theory approach to the liquidus temperatures inside the Earth, A. Aitta, Geophysical Research Abstracts 6, 2004. Presented at the EGU - 1st General Assembly, Nice, France, April 2004.
• The age of the inner core using singularity theory, A. Aitta, Geophysical Research Abstracts 6, 2004. Presented at the EGU - 1st General Assembly, Nice, France, April 2004.
• Solidification and compositional convection of a ternary alloy, A. F. Thompson, H. E. Huppert, M. G. Worster and A. Aitta, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 497, 167-199 (2003).
• An Fe-Si-Ni solidification model for the Earth's layering, A. Aitta, Geophysical Research Abstracts 5, 04167, 2003. A poster in EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, France, April 2003.
• An Fe-Si-Ni solidification model of the Earth's layering, A. Aitta, 15 p. (2002).
• Solidification in ternary systems, A. Aitta, H. E. Huppert and M. G. Worster, Interactive dynamics of convection and solidification, ed. by P. Ehrhard, D. S. Riley and P. H. Steen, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 123-132 (2001).
• Diffusion-controlled solidification of a ternary melt from a cooled boundary, A. Aitta, H. E. Huppert and M. G. Worster, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 432, 201-217 (2001).
• Solidification in ternary systems, Anneli Aitta, Herbert Huppert and Grae Worster, Abstracts of the EUROMECH Colloquium 408 on Interactive dynamics of convection and solidification 18-22 March 2000, Chamonix, France (2000).

Before my career break I studied topological bifurcations and other instabilities in a very viscous fluid rotating in a partially filled, horizontal cylinder. The main publications:

• Experimental laws for the change of topology at an air - viscous fluid interface, A. Aitta. Abstracts. 18th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Haifa, 22-28 August 1992, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (1992).
• Nonlinear phenomena at an air-fluid interface in a horizontal, rotating cylinder, A. Aitta. European Journal of Mechanics, B/Fluids 10, No 2-suppl., 175-180 (1991).
• Instabilities at an air-fluid interface in a horizontal, rotating cylinder, A. Aitta. Abstracts. 2nd Finnish Nonlinear Days, University of Jyväskylä, 8-9 March, 1991.
• Nonlinear phenomena at an air-fluid interface in a horizontal, rotating cylinder, A. Aitta. Abstracts. International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Symposium on Nonlinear Hydrodynamic Stability and Transition, September 3-7, 1990, CNRS-Université de Nice-Sophia-Antipolis, France.
• New bifurcations in a partially filled, horizontal, rotating cylinder, A. Aitta, in Propagation in non-equilibrium systems, eds. J. E. Wesfreid, H. R. Brand, P. Manneville, G. Albinet and N. Boccara, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 325-330 (1988).
• Air cells in a rotating cylinder, A. Aitta. Poster and demonstration in the Symposium Fluid Mechanics in the Spirit of G. I. Taylor, 24-28 March 1986, Cambridge, U.K.

My third main research project has been on the statics and dynamics of symmetry breaking when it changes from being forward to being backward as in the neighbourhood of a tricritical point. I did the experimental work using a Taylor-Couette system in the laboratory of Prof. Guenter Ahlers, University of California at Santa Barbara. The main publications are:

• On the tricritical phenomena in Couette-Taylor flow, A. Aitta, PhD-thesis, University of Helsinki, Report Series in Physics, HU-P-D55, 64 p. (1991).
• On the growth rate in first order transitions, A. Aitta, University of Helsinki, Report Series in Physics, HU-P-255, 12 p. (1991).
• Dynamics near a tricritical point in Couette-Taylor flow, A. Aitta, in Sixth Taylor-Vortex Flow Working Party, May 29-31, 1989, Synopsis of Contributions, ed. by D. Walgraef, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels.
• Dynamics near a tricritical point in Couette-Taylor flow, A. Aitta, Physical Review Letters 62, 2116-2119 (1989).
• Quantitative Landau model for bifurcations near a tricritical point in Couette-Taylor flow, A. Aitta, Physical Review A 34, 2086-2092 (1986).
• Tricritical phenomena in rotating Couette-Taylor flow, A. Aitta, G. Ahlers and D. S. Cannell, Physical Review Letters 54, 673-676 (1985).
• Tricritical phenomena in a small aspect ratio rotating Couette-Taylor System, A. Aitta, G. Ahlers and D. S. Cannell, Bulletin of American Physical Society 30, AQ6, 237 (1985).

Other Interests

I am married to Prof. N.S. Manton, FRS, and we have one adult son.

My other interests include:

• research funding opportunities
• women in science
• my allotment as an enjoyable and productive way to stay fit.