RUI: Using a Sectored Conducting Wall to Study Normal Modes and Transport in a Toroidal Electron Plasma

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A promising route to fusion power for electricity production is the tokamak - a toroidal (or bagel-shaped) magnetic confinement device that confines hot plasma composed of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. Non-neutral plasma, on the other hand, which is composed of relatively cold particles all of one type (either positively or negatively charged), is typically trapped in a straight device that uses a combination of electric and magnetic fields. Such non-neutral systems are used to store antimatter and also serve as candidates for quantum computing elements and next generation precision time standards, among other uses. The project at Lawrence University, a four-year liberal arts college, might be characterized as lying "between a clock and a hot place," as it uses a toroidal magnetic field (like the tokamak) to confine and study a pure electron (i.e., non-neutral) plasma. The apparatus, which was designed and constructed with prior NSF/DOE support, is uniquely positioned to explore untested fundamental aspects of the physics of charged particle collections in a curved and non-uniform magnetic field that closes on itself. The project will provide research experiences (as well as scientific authorship and presentation opportunities) for undergraduate students. Undergraduate research experiences in this small college environment tend to provide more comprehensive research skills training than comparable experiences at larger institutions, thereby contributing in significant ways to developing the future workforce in technical fields. Thanks to Lawrence's success in attracting women physics majors (27% of the physics graduates in the last 5 years) and increasing minority enrollment in the university (145% increase since 2000), the research will positively impact the engagement of underrepresented groups in the physics PhD pipeline. The apparatus will also be used to recruit promising high school students to the Lawrence University physics program and expose the campus and local communities to the subject of plasma physics.