Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas

2003年9月成立的实验室和天体物理等离子体磁性自组织中心(CMSO)的目标是联合实验室和天体物理等离子体科学家，推动这两个领域共同的关键等离子体物理课题。CMSO研究任务的意义体现在两个大问题上：为什么宇宙是磁化的？磁场如何影响等离子体的结构？CMSO包括并围绕四个耦合过程进行组织：磁重联、发电机效应、动量传输和磁湍流。工作的核心是通过实验、计算和理论回答每个领域的基本问题，并将理解应用于重要的天体物理问题。这些物理问题由来自七个机构的科学家团队解决，他们总共提供了独特的工具(七个实验和大量计算资源)和从实验室到天体物理，从实验到理论再到计算的广泛专业知识。成员机构包括威斯康星大学、普林斯顿大学和普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室、洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室、芝加哥大学、新汉普郡大学、斯沃斯莫尔学院和科学应用国际公司。参与的实验包括显示许多自组织特征的三个环状等离子体实验：MST逆场箍缩(威斯康星州)和两个合并等离子体实验，MRX(普林斯顿)和SSX(斯沃斯莫尔)；两个线形重联实验：RSX(洛斯阿拉莫斯)，RWX(威斯康星州)；以及两个液态金属实验：用于研究磁致旋转不稳定性的MRI实验和麦迪逊迪纳摩实验。国家实验室的参与(洛斯阿拉莫斯，普林斯顿)将得到能源部的支持，实验基础设施也是如此；因此，CMSO在很大程度上是美国国家科学基金会和美国能源部之间的伙伴关系。教育外展计划是基于威斯康星大学的物理奇观讲解示范计划。在该计划的赞助下，CMSO代表每年进行100多场演讲，面向学龄儿童和每年10,000人的普通公众。在过去的一年里，通过特别有针对性的演讲向2000名非裔美国儿童做了演讲，并广泛地向美洲原住民和农村社区做了演讲。

The goal of the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas (CMSO), initiated in September, 2003, is to unite laboratory and astrophysical plasma scientists to advance critical plasma physics topics common to both fields. The sense of the CMSO research mission is captured by two large questions: Why is the universe magnetized? How do magnetic fields affect the structure of plasmas? CMSO encompasses and is organized around four, coupled processes: magnetic reconnection, dynamo effects, momentum transport, and magnetic turbulence. The heart of the effort is focused on answering fundamental questions in each area through experiment, computation, and theory, and applying the understanding to important astrophysical problems. These physics problems are addressed by a team of scientists from seven institutions that collectively provide unique tools (seven experiments and an arsenal of computational resources) and great breadth of expertise from the lab to astrophysics, and from experiment to theory to computation. The member institutions are the University of Wisconsin, Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of Chicago, the University of New Hampshire, Swarthmore College, and Science Applications International Corporation. Participating experiments include three toroidal plasma experiments that exhibit many features of self-organization: the MST reversed field pinch (Wisconsin) and two merging plasma experiments, MRX (Princeton) and SSX (Swarthmore); two linear experiments for line-tied reconnection: RSX (Los Alamos), RWX (Wisconsin); and two liquid metal experiments: the MRI experiment (Princeton) for studying the magnetorotational instability, and the Madison Dynamo Experiment. National laboratory participation (Los Alamos, Princeton) will be supported by DOE, as is the experimental infrastructure; thus, CMSO is very much a partnership between NSF and DOE. The educational outreach program is based on The Wonders of Physics lecture-demonstration program through the University of Wisconsin. Under the auspices of this program CMSO representatives make over 100 presentations per year reaching an audience of school children and the general public of 10,000 persons per year. In the past year, presentations were made to 2000 African American children through specially targeted presentations and extensively to Native Americans and rural communities.