Laboratory Investigation of Particle Acceleration Process by Ion Acoustic Double Layers

当代磁层物理学的关键科学问题之一是阐明极光区域粒子加速的过程。粒子沿磁场的加速需要电场的作用，电场既可以是扩展结构，也可以限制在称为双层的狭窄区域中的激波结构中。这笔赠款是为了将之前对离子声波双层的实验室研究扩展到有助于理解极光粒子加速的等离子体参数体系。这些实验包括在长磁化等离子体柱中创建一系列离子声波双层，并研究穿过它们的环境粒子和测试粒子的加速。

One of the key scientific issues of contemporary magnetospheric physics is to elucidate the processes that are responsible for particle acceleration in the auroral region. Acceleration of the particles along a magnetic field requires the action of an electric field which can either be an extended structure or confined to a shock-like structure in a narrow region called a double layer. This grant is to extend previous laboratory investigations of ion acoustic double layers to a plasma parameter regime that is useful for understanding auroral particle acceleration. The experiments consist of creating a series of ion acoustic double layers in a long magnetized plasma column and studying the acceleration of both ambient and test particles across them.