FPN03-65

Wisconsin Gets New Plasma Science Center

October 27, 2003

The National Science Foundation, in partnership with the Department of Energy, has established a Physics Frontier Center in plasma physics - the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas. The key feature of the Center is that it brings together laboratory plasma physicists, particularly fusion scientists, with astrophysicists, to attack common plasma physics problems.

The Center will focus on six coupled topics within the theme of magnetic self-organization: dynamo effects, magnetic reconnection, angular momentum transport, anomalous ion heating, magnetic chaos and transport, and magnetic helicity conservation. Despite the enormous difference in physical scales, the similarity in plasma behavior in the laboratory and cosmos is striking. Physics problems common to both venues will be approached through theory, computation, and experiment.

The Center involves six institutions: the University of Wisconsin, the University of Chicago, Princeton University, Science Applications International Corporation, Swarthmore College, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The five-year effort began September 2003.

Four experiments will participate: the MST reversed field pinch (Wisconsin), the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (Princeton), the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment, and the SSPX spheromak (Livermore). Computation will benefit from the NIMROD code developed within the fusion program and the FLASH code developed within the ASCI program.

Information is available through scprager@wisc.edu or www.cmso.info.