Nonlinear and Inertial Magnetic Structures in Emhd Plasmas

该奖项是为了响应提交给NSF/DOE基础等离子体科学与工程合作伙伴关系NSF 09-596的提案。该奖项提供资金，以支持通过参加年度会议传播研究成果的更广泛影响活动。总体研究工作不支持这一更广泛的影响活动，由美国能源部根据与加州大学洛杉矶分校的合同（赠款DE-FG 02 - 10 ER 55081）单独资助。将对密集等离子体中的磁孔和气泡进行研究。这些是由非线性效应产生的等离子体中磁场的耗尽和增强。这种结构存在于从天体物理到纳米尺度的许多等离子体中。在实验室中，这些现象的物理学将在受控条件下进行研究。气泡和空穴将在称为电子磁流体力学的参数范围内进行研究，其中只有电子与磁场相互作用，而不是离子，而这两种物质通过空间电荷电场耦合。这导致了许多未探索的电磁效应，这些电磁效应在磁场重联，湍流，粒子加速和加热中很有意义。具体来说，拟议的实验将感应局部磁场与环形天线驱动的脉冲或振荡电流。当感应等离子体场抵消环境场时，产生磁孔。磁泡是在非磁化等离子体中产生的，当等离子体场足够强时，磁泡中的电子被磁化，磁泡中存在哨声模。磁泡和磁孔的研究是一个新的基础性课题，对等离子体物理的许多领域都有潜在的影响。拟议的研究通过发现造福社会，这些发现也导致实际应用。例如，正在进行的对哨声涡旋螺旋度特性的研究导致了一种新型定向天线的开发，这种天线可以在空间中用于在优选方向上发送或接收信号。类似的研究仅在俄罗斯进行。

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 09-596. The award provides funds to support the broader impact activity of dissemination of research results by participation in annual conferences. The overall research effort, which does not support this broader impact activity, is being funded separately by the DOE under contract to UCLA (Grant DE-FG02-10ER55081).Research on magnetic holes and bubbles in dense plasmas will be performed. These are depletions and enhancements of magnetic fields in plasmas produced by nonlinear effects. Such structures exist in many plasmas from astrophysical to nanometer scales. In the laboratory the physics of these phenomena will be studied under controlled conditions. Bubbles and holes will be investigated in a parameter regime called electron magnetohydrodynamics, where only the electrons interact with the magnetic field, but not the ions, while both species are coupled via space charge electric fields. This leads to many unexplored electromagnetic effects which are of interest in magnetic reconnection, turbulence, particle acceleration and heating. Specifically, the proposed experiments will induce localized magnetic fields with loop antennas driven by pulsed or oscillatory currents. Magnetic holes are generated when the induced plasma field cancels an ambient field. Magnetic bubbles in unmagnetized plasmas are produced when the induced plasma field is strong enough to magnetize the electrons and allow whistler modes to exist inside the bubble.The study of magnetic holes and bubbles is new and fundamental and has potential impact on many areas in plasma physics. The proposed research benefits society through discoveries which also lead to practical applications. For example, ongoing research into helicity properties of whistler vortices led to the development of a novel directional antenna which could be used in space to transmit or receive signals in a preferred direction. Comparable research is only performed in Russia.