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Carlos Cartagena to present new analytical technique in magnetized plasma turbulence with the Bryn Mawr Experiment

October 9, 2020
Bryn Mawr Experiment plasma chamber

On November 10, Carlos Cartagena (Ph.D. Candidate, Physics) will present a paper co-authored with Josh Carlson (Ph.D. Candidate, Physics) and Professor David Schaffner (Physics). The talk, 鈥,鈥 is part of the panel Fundamental Plasmas: Turbulence II for the  (APS-DPP)

The Bryn Mawr Experiment Plasma Chamber
 The APS-DPP paper will highlight one aspect of the groundbreaking work on magnetized plasma turbulence as part of the Bryn Mawr Experiment in the Bryn Mawr Plasma Laboratory - funded by the NSF-DOE Partnership in Basic Plasma and an NSF Career Award.

Physics Ph.D. Candidate Carlos Cartagena鈥檚 work focuses on mapping the space of plasma turbulence configurations:

鈥淧lasmas are ionized gases which exhibit collective behavior. In other words, plasmas move like fluids but are constrained by internal and/or external electromagnetic fields. Because of this plasma is said to be the fourth state of matter. Similar to how the solid state of matter has a diverse range of parameters; conductivity, density, malleability, etc., plasma also has a wide range of parameters. The Bryn Mawr Experiment (BMX) is designed to explore a wide range of basic plasma parameters, such as the density of plasma and the strength of its internal magnetic field. These two parameters are important because they have a direct effect on a turbulence characteristic of the plasma, which is known as the magnetic Reynolds number.鈥

Carlos will present findings about the current plasma turbulence configuration and its corresponding magnetic Reynolds number. With this the team will introduce a new analysis technique to the community and that they hope will contribute to future experiments with the magnetic Reynolds number. 

Josh Carlson and Professor David Schaffner will also present individual papers in the same panel. Professor Schaffner will deliver the paper Joshua鈥檚 paper is


Carlos Cartagena's Abstract:

The Bryn Mawr Experiment (BMX) is a newly constructed experiment at the Bryn Mawr Plasma Laboratory (BMPL). BMPL is investigating magnetic turbulent generated by injecting helicity with a magnetized coaxial gun source into a flux conserving cylindrical wind-tunnel. This presentation represents the studies of MHD turbulent properties at BMPL. Spatial-temporal correlation analysis of magnetic fluctuations is used to estimate outer and inner scales of the energy-cascade inertial range. With these estimates a magnetic Reynolds number is calculated. The spatial correlation scale is used as the outer scale. The Taylor microscale from Taylor hypothesized temporal correlations is used as the inner scale. Comparisons between Taylor hypothesized temporal correlation properties and spatial correlation properties are also presented.