A Max-Planck/Princeton Research Center for Plasma Physics

宇宙中99%以上的可见物质是等离子体，也就是由离子、电子和中性粒子组成的稀薄气体。尽管它们无处不在，但许多控制等离子体动力学的基本和重要的物理过程仍然知之甚少。反过来，这限制了我们解释太空中各种现象的能力，比如星系中心黑洞的吸积，或者太阳风与地球上层-S大气的相互作用，它还影响了我们在地球上设计和操作实验的能力，比如磁约束聚变设备。Max-Panck/普林斯顿等离子体物理中心(MPPC)是德国马克斯·普朗克学会(MPS)和普林斯顿大学的合资企业，目的是在大学、国家等离子体实验室和国际合作伙伴之间建立新的合作，以解决等离子体动力学中的一些最紧迫的问题。该中心促进等离子体和天体物理学社区之间的跨学科合作，以及美国、德国和其他地方这些社区之间的国际合作。它的服务是在实验科学、计算和理论方面培训下一代等离子体科学家，它的国际范围为早期职业科学家提供了独特的培训，随着等离子体和聚变科学日益国际化，这一培训尤其有价值。最后，该中心为公众以及公立学校、地方和地区机构的学生和教师提供机会，通过普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室建立的推广计划，以增强他们对科学概念和科学思维方式的理解的方式参与科学研究。MPPC致力于研究四个关键主题：磁重联、非热粒子的加速和传播、等离子体湍流的特性，以及天体物理等离子体中的磁流体动力学过程，如磁旋转不稳定性。独一无二的是，它利用国际专业知识和资源，如实验设施和计算方法，领导理论、实验和计算等离子体物理的新研究。美国的项目主要集中在博士后研究人员，他们与现有资金支持的高级研究人员合作。虽然博士后计划是推动中心研究的引擎，但每个参与组织作为一个中心有多种方式融合在一起，例如(1)联合指导博士后，(2)高级成员互访，(3)联合实验，(4)联合代码开发和验证，(5)促进整个美国和德国血浆和天体物理学社区的合作，(6)中心作为一个整体的年度会议，以及更频繁的社区专题研讨会。例如，MPPC将在当前的资助期内在普林斯顿大学举办计算等离子体物理学暑期班。该项目由NSF的物理和天文学部门(数学和物理科学局)和国际科学与工程办公室联合资助。

Over 99% of the visible matter in the Universe is a plasma, that is a dilute gas of ions, electrons, and neutral particles. Despite their ubiquity, many fundamental and important physical processes which control the dynamics of plasmas remain poorly understood. In turn, this limits our ability to intepret diverse phenomena in space such as accretion onto black holes at the centers of galaxies or the interaction of the solar wind with the upper layers of the Earth?s atmosphere, and it also impacts our ability to engineer and operate experiments on Earth such as magnetically confined fusion devices. The Max-Panck/Princeton Center for Plasma Physics (MPPC) was established as a joint venture of the Max Planck Society (MPS) in Germany and Princeton University in order to forge new collaborations between Universities, the national plasma labs, and international partners in order to tackle some of the most pressing problems in plasma dynamics. The center fosters interdisciplinary collaboration between the plasma and astrophysics communities, as well as international collaboration between these communities in the US, Germany, and elsewhere. It serves to train the next generation of plasma scientists in experimental science, computation, and theory, and its international scope provides unique training for early career scientists, particularly valuable as plasma and fusion science become increasingly international. Finally, the center provides opportunities for the public, as well as students and teachers at public schools, local, and regional institutions to engage in scientific inquiry in ways that enhance their understanding of science concepts and scientific ways of thinking through a well established outreach program at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.The MPPC focuses its effort studying four key topics: magnetic reconnection, acceleration and propagation of non-thermal particles, the properties of plasma turbulence, and magnetohydrodynamic processes in astrophysical plasmas such as the magneto-rotational instability. Uniquely, it leverages international expertise and resources such as experimental facilities and computational methods to lead new studies in theoretical, experimental, and computational plasma physics. The US program concentrates strongly on postdoctoral researchers, who work with senior researchers supported by existing funds. While the postdoc program is the engine that drives research in the center, there are a number of ways in which each participating organization has fused together as a center, for example (1) joint mentoring of postdocs, (2) exchange visits of senior members, (3) joint experiments, (4) joint code development and validation, (5) fostering collaborations across the entire US and German plasma and astrophysics communities, and (6) annual meetings of the center as a whole, and more frequent topical workshops for the community. For example, the MPPC will host a summer school in computational plasma physics at Princeton University within the current period of funding.This project is jointly funded by NSF's Divisions of Physics and Astronomy (Mathematical & Physicsal Sciences Directorate), and the Office of International Science and Engineering.