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Plasma Physics Community

Our research community consists of many people from different types of organizations, groups, and institutions (government, academic and industrial).

Main Collaborators

Slava Lukin - Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

Bill Matthaeus - Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware

Robert Wicks - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

 

Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas (CMSO)

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)

Plasma Science and Innovation Center, Univ. of Washington


 

Funding Resources

Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)


 

Societies/Conferences

American Physical Society - Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP)

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Exploratory Plasma Research (EPR), formerly Innovative Confinement Concepts (ICC)

International Workshop on the Interrelationship between Plasma Experiments in the Laboratory and in Space (IPELS)

Solar, Heliospheric and Interplanetary Environment (SHINE)


 

Other Major Plasma Physics/Fusion Research Centers

Basic Plasma Science Facility at UCLA (BAPSF)

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT

University of Iowa

Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering

General Atomics

Caltech

Buzz Feature: Prof. Brown Gives Turbulence Tutorial at APS-DPP 2014

Prof. Brown Gives Turbulence Tutorial at APS-DPP 2014

At the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference (APS-DPP) this year, Professor Brown gave a tutorial talk on turbulence titled "MHD Turbulence: Observation and Experiment." The talk, which was attended by about 150 other plasma physicists from around the country, gave an overview of basic turbulence theory, then discussed four particular metrics used to analyze turbulence and specifically how these metrics are used on SSX. The talk incorporated research conducted by Swarthmore undergraduates Adrian Wan '15 and Peter Weck '15.

See the pdf version of the talk here.

Buzz Feature: Peter Weck '15 Presents Poster at APS-DPP 2014

Peter Weck '15 Presents Poster at APS-DPP 2014

Peter Weck '15 presented his research at the APS DPP meeting in New Orleans during the undergraduate poster session. Peter's work focuses on a relatively new turbulence analysis technique that looks at the permutation entropy and statistical complexity of a time series signal. See Peter's poster here.

Buzz Feature Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar 2014 - Emily Hudson

Emily Hudson '17 Named a Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar

Emily Hudson '17 was named a Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar for the summer of 2014. The Vandervelde-Cheng Scholarship supports summer physics research for Swarthmore undergrads. Emily's work this summer focused on studying the velocity of plasma plumes down the MHD wind tunnel on SSX. She presented her work at the Sigma Xi exhibition in the Science Commons.

Buzz Feature: SSX in APS-DPP Press Release

SSX among experiments profiled in APS-DPP press release

The field of plasma astrophysics is explored in various laboratory settings including MRX at Princeton, LAPD at UCLA, the dipole experiment at Columbia University and SSX at Swarthmore.

See press release here.

Buzz Feature: Grappling with the Unknown

SSX hits Swarthmore front page

Undergraduates Peter Weck and Adrian Wan are interviewed about research and publishing on the SSX in this news feature from the Swarthmore front page.

Grappling with the Unknown

Buzz Feature: Laboratory Astrophysics on Physics Central

Solar Winds and Hot Plasma Experiments

Turbulence research on SSX was recently profiled on the Physics Buzz blog along with experiments from UCLA and Princeton. All three research areas fall under the umbrella of laboratory astrophysics. The blog post includes a podcast with interviews of David Schaffner, Seth Dorfman (UCLA) and Masaaki Yamada (Princeton).

Physics Central Physics Buzz

Buzz Feature: Two new papers accepted to start 2015

Two Papers Accepted to Start the New Year

Two papers, "Permutation entropy and statistical complexity analysis of turbulence in laboratory plasmas and the solar wind" written by Peter Weck '15 and "Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Observation and Experiment" by Michael Brown have been accepted January 2015 for publication in Physical Review E and Physics of Plasma respectively. The first is Peter's first publication and also represents the SSX lab's first foray into both information theory analysis as well as the use of solar wind data. Mike's paper stems from his Invited Tutorial from APS-DPP 2014 and comprises a tutorial on turbulence analysis techniques using a single time series from the WIND satellite in the solar wind. Online versions will be available as soon as they are published.

SSX Buzz Archive