Assessment of Proton Deflectometry for Exploding Wire Experiments

该奖项是根据NSF/DoE基础等离子体科学与工程合作伙伴关系联合招标NSF 08-589提交并审查的提案作出的。该奖项提供资金支持本科生参与整体研究工作，该工作由美国能源部根据合同UCSD单独资助（科学报告#09ER55038）。本文研究了强驱动MHD系统以及磁场拓扑结构对脉冲功率驱动等离子体演化的影响。这将使用一种先进的诊断方法进行检查，即质子探测，并涉及实验和计算工作。在内华达州太瓦设施的1MA ZEBRA发电机上，使用50TW Leopard激光器对各种爆炸线配置进行质子偏转评估和优化的实验活动，并使用3D电阻MHD GORGON和3D混合pic LSP代码进行数据解释。实验程序涉及质子探针产生中的强场-物质相互作用，以及受MG级磁场影响的等离子体的产生。计算方面将应用两个记录良好的等离子体模拟代码，一个3D电阻MHD和一个3D粒子-细胞（PIC），首次结合在一起，为实验结果提供准确的解释。这项研究包括两名研究生，一名在加州大学圣地亚哥分校，一名在NTF，他们将参与实验物理工作以及系统的MHD和PIC建模。研究方案得出的数据将通过在科学期刊上发表和在国际和国家会议和讲习班上介绍而广泛传播。研究生和本科生将展示结果。美国国家科学基金会对本科生参与的支持，通过将学生引入科学研究作为一种可能的职业道路，对他们进行早期培训，从而增加了更广泛的教育影响。

This award is made in response to a proposal submitted to and reviewed under the NSF/DoE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering joint solicitation NSF 08-589. The award provides funds to support undergraduate participation in the overall research effort, which is being funded separately by the DoE under contract UCSD (Science report #09ER55038).This research investigates strongly driven MHD systems and the influence of magnetic field topology on plasma evolution in pulsed-power driven plasmas. This will be examined using an advanced diagnostic method, namely proton probing, and involves both experimental and computational work. The experimental campaign to assess and optimize proton deflectometry will be done for various exploding wire configurations on the 1MA ZEBRA generator at the Nevada Terawatt Facility using the 50TW Leopard laser, with data interpretation by use of the 3D resistive MHD GORGON and 3D hybrid-PIC LSP codes. The experimental program involves intense field-matter interaction in the generation of the proton probe, as well as the generation of plasma subjected to MG scale magnetic fields. The computational aspect will apply two well documented plasma simulation codes, one 3D resistive MHD and one 3D Particle-in-Cell (PIC), in combination for the first time to provide accurate interpretation of the experimental results. This research includes 2 graduate students, one at UCSD and one at NTF, who will be involved with both the experimental physics work and the MHD and PIC modeling of the system. Data resulting from the research program will be broadly disseminated by publication in scientific journals, and presentation at international and national conferences and workshops. Graduate and undergraduate students will present results.The NSF support of undergraduate participation adds a broader educational impact through the early-year training of students by introducing them to scientific research as a possible career path.