Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas

实验室和天体物理等离子体磁自组织中心（CMSO）成立于2003年9月，其目标是联合实验室和天体物理等离子体科学家，推进两个领域共同的关键等离子体物理学课题。CMSO的研究使命的意义在于两个大问题：为什么宇宙被磁化？磁场如何影响等离子体的结构？CMSO包含并围绕四个耦合过程组织：磁场重联、发电机效应、动量输运和磁场湍流。 努力的核心是通过实验，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，他们共同提供独特的工具（七个实验和一个计算资源库）以及从实验室到天体物理学，从实验到理论到计算的广泛专业知识。成员机构包括威斯康星州大学、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、新罕布什尔州大学、斯沃斯莫尔学院和科学应用国际公司。参与的实验包括三个环形等离子体实验，表现出许多自组织的特点：MST反向场箍缩（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）;两个线性实验线绑重联：RSX（洛斯阿拉莫斯），RWX（威斯康星州）;和两个液态金属实验：MRI实验（普林斯顿）研究磁旋转不稳定性，和麦迪逊发电机实验。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NSF和能源部之间的伙伴关系。教育推广计划是基于物理学的奇迹讲座演示计划通过威斯康星州的大学。 在这一方案的主持下，CMSO代表每年向10，000名在校儿童和一般公众作100多次介绍。 在过去一年中，通过特别针对性的介绍，向2 000名非裔美国儿童作了介绍，并广泛地向美洲土著人和农村社区作了介绍。

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.