Carlos Cartagena to present new analytical technique in magnetized plasma turbulence with the Bryn Mawr Experiment
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, “Spatial-temporal correlation analysis of MHD Turbulence at BMPL,” is part of the panel Fundamental Plasmas: Turbulence II for the 62nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP)
Physics Ph.D. Candidate Carlos Cartagena’s work focuses on mapping the space of plasma turbulence configurations:
“Plasmas 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.”
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 “Turbulence studies using self-organized magnetic structures in a plasma wind tunnel.” Joshua’s paper is “Spatial and temporal spectral dependence of magnetic structures in a plasma wind tunnel.”
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.