Max-Planck-Princeton Center for Plasma Physics: A Collaboration in Plasma Astrophysics

宇宙中大多数可见物质都是等离子体，是一种由离子、电子和中性粒子组成的稀释气体。等离子体中发生的许多基本和重要的物理过程仍然知之甚少。这反过来又限制了我们理解太空中各种现象的能力，比如恒星是如何形成的，或者来自太阳的粒子是如何影响地球大气层上层的。它还影响了我们在地球上设计和操作实验的能力，比如磁约束聚变装置。马克斯-潘克普林斯顿等离子体物理中心（MPPC）是由德国马克斯-普朗克学会、普林斯顿大学和美国能源部普林斯顿等离子体物理实验室（PPPL）联合成立的，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关系，以研究等离子体物理中一些最紧迫的问题。通过支持学生和早期职业科学家，MPPC致力于培养下一代实验，计算和理论等离子体物理学家，其国际范围为早期职业科学家提供独特的培训。该中心为公众以及公立和地区学校的学生和教师提供了独特的机会，通过PPPL完善的外展计划，以提高他们对科学概念和科学思维方式的理解的方式参与科学探究。普林斯顿大学MPPC的工作集中在等离子体天体物理学中的三个交叉问题：宇宙射线传输和反馈、湍流和重连之间的相互作用、吸积盘中的发电机作用、恒星对流和星系。将开发新的宇宙射线流体闭合模型，并将其应用于星系中星际介质的模型，以了解宇宙射线反馈在星系形成中的作用。在吸积盘的磁旋转不稳定性和旋转恒星的对流驱动的发电机作用下的磁场放大，将进行新的理论和计算研究。利用MPPC成员开发的新计算工具，将开发与太阳风条件相关的动力学体系中的等离子体湍流的新研究。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。它的国际范围为研究生和博士后提供了独特的培训。该奖项为普林斯顿大学参与MPPC提供了新的支持，能源部为PPPL的参与提供了支持。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Most of the visible matter in the Universe is a plasma, that is a dilute gas of ions, electrons, and neutral particles. Many fundamental and important physical processes that occur in plasmas remain poorly understood. This, in turn, limits our ability to understand diverse phenomena in space such as how stars form or how the particles flowing from the Sun affect the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere. 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 in Germany, Princeton University, and the Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in order to forge new collaborations between Universities, the national plasma labs, and international partners in order to investigate some of the most pressing problems in plasma physics. By supporting students and early career scientists, the MPPC serves to train the next generation of experimental, computational, and theoretical plasma physicists, and its international scope provides unique training for early career scientists. The center provides unique opportunities for the public, as well as students and teachers at public and regional schools, 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 PPPL.The MPPC effort at Princeton University is focused on three cross-cutting problems in plasma astrophysics: cosmic ray transport and feedback, the interplay between turbulence and reconnection, and dynamo action in accretion disks, stellar convection, and galaxies. New fluid closure models for cosmic rays will be developed and applied to models of the interstellar medium in galaxies to understand the role of cosmic-ray feedback on galaxy formation. New theoretical and computational studies of magnetic field amplification by dynamo action driven by the magneto-rotational instability in accretion disks, and convection in rotating stars, will be undertaken. Using new computational tools developed by members of the MPPC, new studies of plasma turbulence in the kinetic regime, relevant to conditions in the solar wind, will be developed. 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. Its international scope provides unique training for graduate students and postdocs. This award provides renewed support for Princeton University's participation in MPPC, with support for PPPL's participation provided by the Department of Energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.