BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
PRODID:UW-Madison-Physics-Events
BEGIN:VEVENT
SEQUENCE:0
UID:UW-Physics-Event-1533
DTSTART:20091113T220000Z
DURATION:PT1H0M0S
DTSTAMP:20260506T172210Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20091111T154625Z
LOCATION:2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 3:30 pm)
SUMMARY:Inward Turbulent Diffusion of Plasmas in a Levitated Dipole\, 
 Physics Department Colloquium\, Michael Mauel\, Columbia University
DESCRIPTION:The rearrangement of plasma due to turbulence is among the
  most important processes that occur in planetary magnetospheres and i
 n experiments used for fusion energy research. Remarkably\, fluctuatio
 ns that occur in active magnetospheres drive particles inward and crea
 te centrally peaked profiles. Until now\, the strong peaking seen in s
 pace has been undetectable in the laboratory because the loss of parti
 cles along the magnetic field is faster than the net driven flow acros
 s the magnetic field. Here\, we report the first laboratory measuremen
 ts in which a strong superconducting magnet is levitated and used to c
 onfine high temperature plasma in a configuration that resembles plane
 tary magnetospheres. Levitation eliminates field-aligned particle loss
 \, and the central plasma density increases dramatically. The buildup 
 of density characterizes a turbulent pinch and is found equal to the r
 ate predicted from measured electric field fluctuations. Our observati
 ons show that dynamic principles describing magnetospheric plasma are 
 relevant to plasma confined by a levitated dipole.
URL:https://www.physics.wisc.edu/events/?id=1533
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR