MRI: Development of a Magnetized Dusty Plasma Device

该项目将开发一种新的多用户多机构研究仪器--磁化尘埃等离子体装置。该设备将被安置在奥本大学(阿拉巴马州奥本)。这位来自奥本大学的PI(Edward Thomas，非裔美国人)领导着一个强大的联合PI团队，其中包括加州大学圣地亚哥分校的Marlene Rosenberg(女性)和爱荷华大学(EPSCoR State)的Robert Merlino。该项目将超导强磁场(|B|=4特斯拉)系统、灵活的多配置等离子体室和等离子体源、新型纳米粒子成像系统和先进的基于网络的控制系统的集成开发结合在一起，以创建一种独特的研究设备，它将成为尘埃等离子体研究领域中同类仪器的首选。该项目是两年多来国际发展活动的成果。这项工作利用了整个尘埃等离子体研究社区的专业知识，并让对聚变、天体物理和流体力学感兴趣的研究人员参与进来，从而提供了强有力的证据，表明该社区将接受这一项目并利用这一新资源。此外，这个拟议的项目具有变革性，因为一旦投入使用，该设备将允许访问以前无法访问的尘埃等离子体行为区域，这为该项目提供了更多的动力，使社区对该项目的广泛支持。研究颗粒荷电(例如，小于颗粒间距离的离子/电子回转轨道)、波动现象(例如静电尘埃回旋波)、磁场对尘埃传输的影响(例如g[矢量]×B[矢量]漂移)，以及嵌入顺磁粒子的等离子体行为，将是该设备将使之成为可能的新的科学课题。

This project will develop a new multi-user multi-institutional research instrument -- a magnetized dusty plasma device. The device would be housed at Auburn University (Auburn, Alabama). The PI (Edward Thomas, African American) from Auburn University, heads a strong team of co-PIs including Marlene Rosenberg (female) from University of California, San Diego, and Robert Merlino from the University of Iowa (EPSCoR state). This project combines the integrated development of a superconducting, high magnetic field (|B| = 4 Tesla) system, a flexible, multiconfiguration plasma chamber and plasma source, a novel nanoparticle imaging system, and an advanced, network-based control system to create a unique, research device that will be the premier instrument of its type in the dusty plasma research community. This project is the culmination of over two years of international development activity. This effort has leveraged the expertise of the entire dusty plasma research community as well as involving researchers with interests in fusion, astrophysics, and fluid mechanics, and thus provides strong evidence that this community will embrace this project and make use of this new resource. Moreover, this proposed project is transformational in that, once operational, this device will allow access to regimes of dusty plasma behavior that have previously been inaccessible, which provides additional motivation for broad community support for this project. Investigations of grain charging (e.g., ion/electron gyro-orbits less than inter-grain distances), wave phenomena (e.g., electrostatic dust cyclotron wave), magnetic field effects on dust transport (e.g., g[vector] ×B[vector] drift), and the behavior of plasma with embedded paramagnetic particles are new scientific topics that will be enabled by this device.