Acquisition of Equipment and Instrumentation for a Space-Physics Simulation Facility at West Virginia University

这是一项重大研究仪器奖，以获得升级西弗吉尼亚大学等离子体物理实验室新的空间物理模拟设施的设备。该设施由一个长4米、直径1.8米的圆柱形不锈钢真空室组成。升级的目标是获得必要的设备，以便在尘埃等离子体这一具有广泛科学和技术应用的次级领域内开展一类独特的实验。新的实验将提供有关静电尘埃回旋不稳定性和其他与尘埃等离子体相关的新波和不稳定性的信息，尘埃等离子体的尘埃颗粒回转半径比等离子体半径小得多，这是一个尚未在实验室实现的参数体系。这些实验将提供获得最近引起重大理论关注的参数制度的途径。该设备包括电磁铁、真空泵、电源和16路波形记录仪。远景目标是空间物理模拟设施在磁化尘埃等离子体的实验研究中承担起科学领导地位。

This is a Major Research Instrumentation award to acquire equipment to upgrade the West Virginia University Plasma Physics Laboratory's new Space Physics Simulation Facility. The facility consists of a cylindrical, stainless-steel vacuum chamber 4 meters long and 1.8 meters in diameter. The objective of the upgrade is to acquire equipment necessary to launch a unique category of experiments within the subfield of dusty plasmas, a subfield with wide-ranging scientific and technological applications. The new experiments enabled will provide information about the electrostatic dust-cyclotron instability and other new waves and instabilities associated with dusty plasmas having the dust-grain gyroradius much smaller than the radius of the plasma, a parameter regime yet to be achieved in the laboratory. The experiments will provide access to a parameter regime that has commanded significant recent theoretical attention. The equipment includes electromagnets, vacuum pumps, power supply, and 16-channel waveform recorder. The long range goal is for the Space Physics Simulation Facility to assume scientific leadership in experimental studies of magnetized dusty plasmas.