Interaction of Flowing Plasma with Collecting Objects

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award is made in response to a proposal submitted to and reviewed under the NSF/DoE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering joint solicitation NSF 08-589. The award provides funds to support student travel to conferences and undergraduate participation in the overall research effort, which is being funded separately by the DoE under contract to MIT (Grant DE-FG02-06ER54891) This research supports deployment and development of SCEPTIC and related codes to address fundamental plasma problems. The SCEPTIC code, a particle-in-cell code, three-dimensional in ion-velocity distribution and space, was designed to compute solutions to one of the most fundamental problems in plasma physics: the interaction of a flowing plasma with an absorbing object. Specifically, (1) further exploration of the effects of flow in 3-D plasmas of arbitrary degree of magnetization, which promises to offer a first-principles understanding of probes and dust interaction in typical plasmas where turbulence dominates cross-field transport; (2) inclusion of additional particle species, such as refluxing neutrals; (3) calculations of interactions with cylindrical objects, since cylindrical geometry is widely used for probes; (4) comparison of the specialized coordinate code results with more general coordinate codes to establish the level of accuracy of the latter and to explore problems that they are well suited to, such as the vexed question of the plasma wake, and the problems of multiple dust-grain interactions. The research activity will include the education of a graduate student, the distribution of the improved SCEPTIC code for free use by other researchers, and for educational purposes, and the publication of important fundamental results from it. Note that dusty plasma research is frequently undertaken in institutions that have only modest financial resources, including many developing countries, and this work will help connect those institutions and researchers to the wider plasma field. The NSF support of undergraduate participation adds a broader educational impact through the early-year training of students by introducing them to scientific research as a possible career path.