Coupling Between Plasma and Neutrals: Theoretical Development and Applications to Chromospheric Heating and Magnetosphere-ionosphere Coupling

该项目的主要目标是通过开发一个三流体模型来分析等离子体和中性粒子之间的相互作用。这三种流体是自由电子、离子和中性。这种耦合是通过不同物种之间的碰撞和连接不同感兴趣区域的电磁场来实现的。分析的目的是提供对耦合的更多物理和分析理解。这里的方法将是进行尽可能多的分析分析，而不是从复杂的方程和真实的几何开始。理论分析的结果将应用于磁层、电离层和热层之间的耦合，但理论分析有可能应用于空间和天体物理等离子体现象的许多领域。特别是，这项工作有可能为色球/日冕加热问题提供新的见解。大部分研究将由一名研究生进行。

The primary goal of the project is to analyze the interactions between plasmas and neutral particles by developing a three-fluid model. The three fluids are free electrons, the ions and the neutrals. The coupling comes via collisions among the different species and the electromagnetic field that connects different regions of interest. The purpose of the analysis is to provide a more physical and analytical understanding of the coupling. Rather than starting with complicated equations and a realistic geometry the approach here will be to conduct as much analytical analyses as possible. Additional terms and equations and more realistic geometries will be gradually introduced when the simpler ones are understood.The results of the theoretical analysis will be applied to the coupling between the magnetosphere, the ionosphere and the thermosphere, but the theoretical analysis could potentially be applied to many areas of space and astrophysical plasma phenomena. In particular the work has the potential to give new insight into the problem of chromospheric/coronal heating. Much of the research will be carried out by a graduate student.