Experiments on Alfven Waves

阿尔文波在空间等离子体中无处不在， 许多航天器在各种不同的环境下都观察到了这种信号。 条件 大量的理论工作和计算机 模拟直接或间接地处理它们，尽管 已经是不成比例的少量实验室 在这个领域的实验。 原因是缺乏 实验室等离子体来源，其中清洁，并详细研究 这些波可以被执行。 最近，一台机器被 在加州大学洛杉矶分校建造，具有10米长，50厘米直径 血浆柱 该机器可以在温和的条件下运行。 密度，高度电离（99%）He或H等离子体在均匀轴向 最高可达2.5KG。 我们提出了一系列的实验， 验证我们可以发射和探测阿尔芬波，然后 用最先进的数据收集来诊断他们， 可视化系统

Alfven waves are ubiquitous in space plasmas and their signatures have been observed by many spacecraft under a variety of conditions. A large amount of theoretical work and computer simulations deal with them directly or indirectly although there have been a disproportionately small amount of laboratory experiments in this area. The reason for this is the lack of laboratory plasma sources in which clean, and detailed studies of these waves can be performed. Recently, a machine has been constructed at UCLA which features a 10m long, 50 cm diameter plasma column. The machine can be operated in a regime of moderate density, highly ionized (99%) He or H plasmas in a uniform axial field of up to 2.5 kG. We propose a series of experiments to verify that we can launch and detect Alfven waves, and then diagnose them with a sate-of-the-art data collection and visualization system.