Plasma Physics HEC Consortium

等离子体物理学是研究电离气体性质的学科。需要研究的过程包括远离其平衡状态的物质的动力学理论，磁化和导电等离子体的流体动力学以及这些过程在大范围时间和长度尺度上的相互作用，通常是复杂的几何形状。这样的问题很难用解析的方法处理，因此很多等离子体物理学依赖于高端计算（HEC）来执行大规模的模拟。该HEC联盟将涵盖计算等离子体物理的所有方面。这包括磁约束聚变（MCF）设备的建模，以优化反应堆性能，模拟优化激光粒子加速器源，高强度激光等离子体实验和激光驱动聚变的新方法。在所有这些领域，HEC资源都需要用于模拟，这些模拟对于指导实验和研究计划（包括为未来等离子体设施的性能提供可靠的预测能力）或解释来自耦合多尺度、非线性和通常相对论性过程的复杂诊断集至关重要。为了保持英国在聚变反应堆设计和基础等离子体物理方面的领先地位，HEC联盟需要英国国家级计算资源的块分配，即所谓的Tier-1 HEC。这将简化这些设施的使用，并允许英国共同规划计算项目，这些项目将需要许多年才能完成，在确定计算资源可用的情况下。在为期四年的HEC联盟期间，计算机体系结构可能会发生变化，因此优化当前和未来机器的代码至关重要。此外，必须开发和实施新的物理软件包，以保持英国在这项研究的前沿。因此，联盟还需要为软件开发提供资金，以利用计算资源并保持代码的世界领先地位。通过一级高等教育中心和软件支持的结合，科学研究的应用是多种多样的。该联盟的大部分研究将集中在改进核聚变发电反应堆的设计上。这是MCF和激光聚变能（IFE）。对于前者，HEC将专注于了解能量如何从热等离子体核心传输，并管理发生在周围壁上的极端热负荷。IFE的主要挑战是通过减轻燃料颗粒内爆中的不均匀性，了解可能阻碍聚变的快电子的产生以及设计新的聚变方法（例如冲击或快速点火方案）来实现激光驱动的聚变。激光驱动等离子体加速器和辐射源有多种形式，从激光照射的固体到紧凑的毛细管放电；其应用包括基于快速点火的激光聚变，用于放射治疗的离子源和用于穿透探测的紧密型超快x射线源。

Plasma physics is the study of the properties of ionised gases. The processes, which need to be investigated, cover kinetic theory of matter far from its equilibrium state, fluid dynamics of magnetised and conductive plasmas and the interaction of these across a huge range of time and length scales, often in complex geometries. Such problems are rarely tractable analytically and thus much of plasma physics relies on High End Computing (HEC) to perform massive simulations.This HEC Consortium will cover all aspects of computational plasma physics. This includes modelling for magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) devices to optimize reactor performance, simulations to optimize laser-particle accelerator sources, novel approaches to high-intensity laser-plasma experiments and laser-driven fusion. In all these areas HEC resources are needed for simulations which are essential to either guide experiments and research programmes (including providing a reliable predictive capability for the performance of future plasma facilities) or to interpret the complex diagnostic sets from coupled multi-scale, non-linear and often relativistic processes.To help maintain the UK's leading role in fusion reactor design and basic plasma physics the HEC Consortium requires a block allocation of UK National level computing resource, so called Tier-1 HEC. This will ease the access to such facilities and allow the UK to collectively plan computational programmes, which will require many years to complete, in the certainty that the computing resources will be available. Over the four-year duration of this HEC Consortium computer architectures may change and optimising codes for current and future machines is therefore essential. In addition, new physics packages must be developed and implemented to keep the UK at the cutting edge of this research. The Consortium therefore also requires funding for software development to exploit the computing resources and keep codes world-leading.Applications of the scientific research enabled by the combination of Tier-1 HEC and software support are diverse. Much of the research of the Consortium will be directed at improving reactor designs for fusion power. This is both MCF and laser fusion energy (IFE). For the former the HEC will concentrate on understanding how energy is transported from the hot plasma core and managing the extreme heat loads incident on surrounding walls. IFE's primary challenge is achieving laser-driven fusion by mitigating non-uniformities in the fuel pellet implosion, understanding the generation of fast-electrons which may prevent fusion and designing novel approached to fusion, e.g. shock or fast ignition schemes. Laser-driven plasma accelerators and radiation sources have many forms, ranging from laser-irradiated solids to compact capillary discharges; with applications including fast-ignition based laser fusion, ion sources for radiotherapy and compact ultrafast x-ray sources for penetrative probing.