https://phys.org/physics-news/plasma en-us The latest news on physics of plasma Twenty-five feet below ground, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory scientist Spencer Gessner opens a large metal picnic basket. This is not your typical picnic basket filled with cheese, bread and fruit—it contains screws, bolts, steel tubing, and many other parts and pieces that carry particles to nearly the speed of light. The components are arranged precisely to do an important job: help feed bunches of fast-moving electrons into the stuff that the sun is made of: plasma. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-particle-cold-plasma-large-picnic.html General Physics Plasma Physics Fri, 01 Dec 2023 15:28:02 EST news620666873 Interactions between intense laser pulses and plasma mirrors have been the focus of several recent physics studies due to the interesting effects they produce. Experiments have revealed that these interactions can generate a non-linear physical process known as high-order harmonics, characterized by the emission of extreme ultraviolet radiation (XUV) and brief flashes of laser light (i.e., attosecond pulses). https://phys.org/news/2023-11-anomalous-relativistic-emission-intense-interaction.html Optics & Photonics Plasma Physics Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:00:01 EST news620560616 The world's biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor in operation was inaugurated in Japan on Friday, a technology in its infancy but billed by some as the answer to humanity's future energy needs. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-japanese-experimental-nuclear-fusion-reactor.html General Physics Plasma Physics Fri, 01 Dec 2023 02:41:20 EST news620620871 A new study suggests that universities have an essential role to fulfill in the continued growth and success of any modern high-tech industry, and especially the nascent fusion industry; however, the importance of that role is not reflected in the number of fusion-oriented faculty and educational channels currently available. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-universities-critical-emerging-fusion-industry.html Plasma Physics Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:22:04 EST news620569321 Particle accelerators hold great potential for semiconductor applications, medical imaging and therapy, and research in materials, energy and medicine. But conventional accelerators require plenty of elbow room—kilometers—making them expensive and limiting their presence to a handful of national labs and universities. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-compact-technology-major-energy-milestone.html Optics & Photonics Plasma Physics Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:36:43 EST news620386600 The LHC is back delivering collisions to the experiments after the successful leak repair in August. But instead of protons, it is now the turn of lead ion beams to collide, marking the first heavy-ion run in five years. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-lhc-lead-ion-collision.html General Physics Plasma Physics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 16:03:57 EDT news615135833 Researchers led by Chang Liu of PPPL have unveiled a promising approach to mitigating damaging runaway electrons created by disruptions in tokamak fusion devices. Key to the approach was harnessing a unique type of plasma wave that bears the name of astrophysicist Hannes Alfvén, a 1970 Nobel laureate. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-breakthrough-discovery-fusion-energy-earth.html Plasma Physics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:08:04 EDT news615118082 The process that powers the stars—nuclear fusion—is proposed as a future power source for humanity and could provide clean and renewable energy free of the radioactive waste associated with current nuclear fission plants. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-machine-hydrogen-isotopes-future-nuclear.html Plasma Physics Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:29:00 EDT news612782936 Fusion reactors, fast breeder reactors, and solar thermal power plants are being developed as power plants with low environmental impact and no resource constraints. Since these power plants operate at high temperature with large-heat transfer, scientists are studying the use of components that use liquid metal (has excellent heat transfer performance) as a coolant. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-elucidating-mechanism-layers-fusion-reactors.html Plasma Physics Fri, 25 Aug 2023 10:08:13 EDT news612176890 Scientists have found a mathematical shortcut that could help harness fusion energy, a potential source of clean electricity that could mitigate floods, heat waves, and other rising effects of climate change. The method allows researchers to more easily predict how well a stellarator—a twisty device designed to reproduce the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars—can retain the heat crucial to fusion reactions. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-scientists-shortcut-aids-twisty-fusion.html Plasma Physics Thu, 17 Aug 2023 15:47:03 EDT news611506021 A team led by researchers at Osaka University and University of California, San Diego has conducted simulations of creating matter solely from collisions of light particles. Their method circumvents what would otherwise be the intensity limitations of modern lasers and can be readily implemented by using presently available technology. This work might help experimentally test long-standing theories such as the Standard Model of particle physics, and possibly the need to revise them. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-simulating-creation-photonphoton-collisions.html Plasma Physics Quantum Physics Thu, 10 Aug 2023 05:08:39 EDT news610862915 US scientists responsible for a historic nuclear fusion breakthrough say they have repeated the feat—this time achieving a greater yield of energy. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-lab-nuclear-fusion-feat-higher.html General Physics Plasma Physics Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:55:22 EDT news610624515 Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. It determines the properties of stars and planets and is crucial for life on Earth—not least because of its role in climate-neutral energy supply. Generations of scientists in physics and chemistry have researched hydrogen very intensively, both in experiments and with the help of computer simulations. Despite its very simple structure—a hydrogen atom consists of only one electron and one proton—many properties have still not been conclusively clarified. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-property-hydrogen.html Plasma Physics Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:08:16 EDT news610621644 It isn't just your refrigerator that has magnets on it. The Earth, the stars, galaxies, and the space between galaxies are all magnetized, too. The more places scientists have looked for magnetic fields across the universe, the more they've found them. But the question of why that is the case and where those magnetic fields originate from has remained a mystery and a subject of ongoing scientific inquiry. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-clues-source-universe-magnetic-fields.html Plasma Physics Mon, 31 Jul 2023 12:11:03 EDT news610024261 "Plasma wakefield acceleration is like surfing," says Edda Gschwendtner, leader of the AWAKE accelerator R&D project at CERN. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-stronger-particles.html Plasma Physics Quantum Physics Thu, 27 Jul 2023 16:56:28 EDT news609695782 Humans may never be able to tame the sun, but hydrogen plasma—making up most of the sun's interior—can be confined in a magnetic field as part of fusion power generation: with a caveat. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-molecular-rotational-temperature-plasma-recombination.html Plasma Physics Thu, 27 Jul 2023 05:00:01 EDT news609605792 A team of researchers from the Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division at Berkeley Lab has developed a new technique for combining fiber lasers operating at different wavelengths to produce ultrashort laser pulses. The research was published in the journal Optics Express. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-spectrally-combining-lasers-unleash-potential.html Optics & Photonics Plasma Physics Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:19:03 EDT news609427142 Fusion, which replicates the same reaction that powers the sun, has long been viewed as an ideal energy source due to its potential to be safe, clean, cheap, and reliable. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-technique-mass-production-fusion-energy.html Plasma Physics Fri, 14 Jul 2023 12:20:03 EDT news608556001 A burning flame is full of charged particles that can be affected by an electric field. KAUST researchers have now studied the use of high voltages to control these particles, which could potentially reduce soot formation and improve a flame's stability. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-laser-reveal-high-voltage-affects.html General Physics Plasma Physics Thu, 13 Jul 2023 13:24:55 EDT news608473492 How are plasma eruptions in near-Earth space formed? Vlasiator, a model designed at the University of Helsinki for simulating near-Earth space, demonstrated that the two central theories on the occurrence of eruptions are simultaneously valid: eruptions are explained by both magnetic reconnection and kinetic instabilities. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-simulation-solutions-central-mystery-space.html General Physics Plasma Physics Thu, 29 Jun 2023 12:34:03 EDT news607260841 Imagine the explosive disturbance caused by a jet going supersonic. A similar shock wave occurs when subatomic particles known as "solar wind" flow from the sun and strike the Earth's magnetic field. Now, scientists have used a recently developed technique to improve predictions of the timing and intensity of the solar wind's strikes, which sometimes disrupt telecommunications satellites and damage electrical grids. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-algorithm-plasma-space.html Plasma Physics Tue, 27 Jun 2023 15:38:27 EDT news607099101 A research team led by Prof. Lyu Bo from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has improved the diagnostic accuracy of X-ray Crystal Spectroscopy (XCS) and investigated a series of fusion reactor-related spectral lines on tungsten (W) and xenon (Xe) at the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). https://phys.org/news/2023-06-team-spectral-analysis-x-ray-crystal.html Plasma Physics Tue, 27 Jun 2023 14:17:03 EDT news607094221 New measurements of how particles flow from collisions of different types of particles at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have provided new insights into the origin of the shape of hot specks of matter generated in these collisions. The results may lead to a deeper understanding of the properties and dynamics of this form of matter, known as a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). https://phys.org/news/2023-06-driver-small-quark-gluon-plasma.html General Physics Plasma Physics Tue, 27 Jun 2023 11:36:47 EDT news607084599 Developing commercial fusion energy requires scientists to understand sustained processes that have never before existed on Earth. But with so many unknowns, how do we make sure we're designing a device that can successfully harness fusion power? https://phys.org/news/2023-06-mathematical-blueprint-fusion-device.html Plasma Physics Thu, 22 Jun 2023 16:12:03 EDT news606669121 Creating efficient, self-sustaining fusion power requires good confinement of the heat in the plasma. Plasma confinement is limited by particle and energy losses due to turbulence. A new analysis has used a powerful supercomputer to study this turbulence. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-fusion-simulations-reveal-multi-scale-nature.html Plasma Physics Wed, 21 Jun 2023 17:08:54 EDT news606586131 Understanding the mechanisms of interaction between plasma and microparticles is of a critical importance in various fields, including astrophysics, microelectronics, and plasma medicine. A common experimental approach for studying interactions between plasma and microparticles is to place microparticles in a flowing plasma of a gas discharge. In order to achieve a more accurate understanding of the processes occurring in such systems, scientists need fast and efficient tools for calculating forces acting on microparticles in a plasma flow. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-physicists-faster-algorithm-simulation-motion.html Plasma Physics Tue, 13 Jun 2023 14:16:07 EDT news605884564 Outside atomic nuclei, neutrons are unstable particles, with a lifetime of about fifteen minutes. The neutron disintegrates due to the weak nuclear force, leaving behind a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino. The weak nuclear force is one of the four fundamental forces in the universe, along with the strong force, the electromagnetic force, and the gravitational force. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-insights-interplay-electromagnetism-weak-nuclear.html General Physics Plasma Physics Mon, 05 Jun 2023 09:20:14 EDT news605175611 The building blocks of atomic nuclei are protons and neutrons, which are themselves made of even more fundamental particles: quarks and gluons. These particles interact via the strong force, one of the four fundamental forces of nature. They make up the nuclei at the heart of every atom. They also make up forms of hot or dense nuclear matter that exhibit exotic properties. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-mathematical-puzzle-quarks-gluons-nuclear.html Plasma Physics Mon, 05 Jun 2023 09:07:03 EDT news605174821 To produce commercial energy, future fusion power plants will need to achieve temperatures of 100 million degrees C. To do so requires careful control of the plasma. In a study published in the journal Nuclear Fusion, researchers refined operating conditions to achieve the necessary temperatures in a compact spherical tokamak device called ST40. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-small-fusion-temperatures-hotter-sun.html Plasma Physics Tue, 30 May 2023 13:23:12 EDT news604671790 Scientists have conducted laboratory experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that provide new insights on the complex process of pressure-driven ionization in giant planets and stars. Their research, published today in Nature, unveils the material properties and behavior of matter under extreme compression, offering important implications for astrophysics and nuclear fusion research. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-pressure-driven-ionization-giant-planets-stars.html Plasma Physics Thu, 25 May 2023 10:59:23 EDT news604231158