2D Fluid Dynamics with Pure Electron Plasmas

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project employs pure electron plasmas to study two-dimensional nearly inviscid fluid flow. The project unites the efforts of researchers with experience in pure electron plasmas and plasma fluid experiments with those with experience in the analytic and numerical analysis of geophysical flows and two-dimensional turbulence. Key areas of study will include determining how complex fluid systems equilibrate and relax toward their late-time states, how they create structures and spatial patterns, and how the dynamics differ in flows that are strictly Hamiltonian from those with forcing and dissipation such that the phase space has both repelling and attracting regions. The results of this work will have broad impact on turbulence theory, pattern formation, planetary atmospheres, oceanography, and star and planet formation.