Exploring New Regions of Space: Fundamentals and Impacts of Astrophysical Plasma Turbulence

探索太空新区域：天体物理等离子体湍流的基本原理和影响

• 批准号: MR/W007657/1
• 负责人: Christopher Chen
• 金额: $ 180.07万
• 依托单位: Queen Mary University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FW007657%2F1
• 关键词: Exploring; New; Regions; Space; Fundamentals

How do stars like the Sun drive fast supersonic winds into their local environments? Why is the solar atmosphere hundreds of times hotter than the Sun itself? Can the damaging effects of space weather be reliably predicted? What might we discover in parts of space we have yet to explore? The coming decade presents an unprecedented opportunity answer these, and other, major outstanding questions in plasma astrophysics. NASA's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) will soon become the first spacecraft to fly through the solar corona, while the Voyager spacecraft are now beginning to explore the local interstellar medium (LISM) beyond the heliosphere for the first time. There are many mysteries to be investigated in these regions of space, but they also hold the key to understanding the universal physical processes at the heart of the above unanswered questions. In addition, space weather - the changing plasma conditions in the near-Earth space - is being realised as increasingly urgent to understand and predict due to its potentially severe consequences for us on Earth. Space weather is high on the UK's National Risk Register, alongside infectious diseases, with the potential for substantial harm to the economy and public health, putting lives at risk, due to the vulnerabilities of our modern society's increasing reliance on its technological infrastructure.I consider the essential key to answering these questions and challenges to be the importance of plasma turbulence - the fundamental complex chaotic behaviour of the ionised gasses that make up most of the known matter in the universe. Plasma turbulence is ubiquitous in nature, governing the flow of energy and dynamics of these environments, but basic questions remain about how it works, to what degree it is universal, and how it impacts the astrophysical systems that it pervades. Until recently, the effect of turbulence in astrophysics had been under-appreciated, but with recent progress in understanding it is now seen to play a key role in many important scenarios, e.g., solar and stellar wind generation, heating of the solar corona, accretion disk transport, galaxy cluster heating, magnetic field generation, and space weather impacts.My research vision is to connect these related themes in a new and unique interdisciplinary project on the fundamentals and impacts of plasma turbulence, which will answer these important and timely questions. The proposed research, which builds on my proven expertise in space plasma turbulence, involves using PSP to make the first measurements in the solar corona to determine how turbulence generates the solar wind and heats the corona, using Voyager to understand interstellar turbulence and its effect on the global heliosphere, novel lab experiments on the Large Plasma Device to probe the fundamental interactions at the heart of plasma turbulence, and new techniques to understand the effect of turbulence on space weather and make urgent improvements to forecast accuracy.An interdisciplinary approach will be taken to this ambitious and unique project to achieve maximum impact, allowing me to establish myself as a new leader in the field. Academic impact will be achieved by answering important long-standing questions of fundamental plasma physics and space plasma physics. Socioeconomic impact will be achieved from improved space weather predictions to help protect us from its damaging effects and preventing billions of pounds worth of damage to the economy.In summary, this proposal describes a highly timely programme of interdisciplinary research that covers important fundamental topics in plasma physics, long-standing open questions in astrophysics, space exploration with the potential for significant discoveries, and direct application to space weather forecasting with a clear path to major societal impact.

像太阳这样的恒星如何将快速的超音速风吹入其当地环境？为什么太阳大气层比太阳本身热数百倍？太空天气的破坏性影响可以可靠预测吗？在我们尚未探索的太空部分我们可能会发现什么？未来十年为回答这些以及等离子体天体物理学中其他主要悬而未决的问题提供了前所未有的机会。美国宇航局的帕克太阳探测器（PSP）很快将成为第一艘飞越日冕的航天器，而航行者号航天器现在开始首次探索日光层之外的当地星际介质（LISM）。这些空间区域有许多谜团有待研究，但它们也掌握着理解上述未解答问题核心的普遍物理过程的关键。此外，空间天气（近地空间中不断变化的等离子体条件）由于其对地球上的潜在严重后果而越来越迫切需要了解和预测。由于现代社会对其技术基础设施的依赖日益增加，太空天气与传染病一样在英国国家风险登记册上名列前茅，有可能对经济和公共健康造成重大损害，使生命面临危险。我认为回答这些问题和挑战的关键是等离子体湍流的重要性——构成宇宙中大部分已知物质的电离气体的基本复杂混沌行为。等离子体湍流在自然界中无处不在，控制着这些环境的能量流动和动力学，但基本问题仍然是它如何工作、它的普遍性程度以及它如何影响它所遍布的天体物理系统。直到最近，湍流在天体物理学中的影响还没有被充分认识到，但随着最近对它的理解的进展，现在人们发现它在许多重要场景中发挥着关键作用，例如太阳和恒星风发电、日冕加热、吸积磁盘传输、星系团加热、磁场生成和空间天气影响。我的研究愿景是将这些相关主题连接到一个关于等离子体湍流的基本原理和影响的新的、独特的跨学科项目中，该项目将回答这些重要而及时的问题。拟议的研究以我在空间等离子体湍流方面经过验证的专业知识为基础，涉及使用 PSP 在日冕中进行首次测量，以确定湍流如何产生太阳风并加热日冕，使用 Voyager 了解星际湍流及其对日冕的影响全球日光层、大型等离子体装置上的新颖实验室实验，以探测等离子体湍流核心的基本相互作用，以及了解湍流对空间天气影响并采取紧急措施的新技术提高预测准确性。这个雄心勃勃且独特的项目将采用跨学科方法，以实现最大影响，使我能够成为该领域的新领导者。通过回答基础等离子体物理学和空间等离子体物理学的重要的长期问题将实现学术影响。改进的空间天气预报将产生社会经济影响，以帮助保护我们免受其破坏性影响，并防止对经济造成数十亿英镑的损失。 总之，该提案描述了一个非常及时的跨学科研究计划，涵盖等离子体领域的重要基本主题物理学、天体物理学中长期存在的开放性问题、具有重大发现潜力的太空探索，以及直接应用于空间天气预报并具有重大社会影响的明确途径。

项目成果

A measurement of the effective mean free path of solar wind protons

太阳风质子有效平均自由程的测量

• DOI: 10.1017/s0022377822000836
• 发表时间: 2022-03-24
• 期刊: Journal of Plasma Physics
• 影响因子: 2.5
• 作者: J. T. Coburn;Christopher S. Chen;J. Squire
• 通讯作者: J. Squire

The effect of variations in the magnetic field direction from turbulence on kinetic-scale instabilities

湍流引起的磁场方向变化对动力学尺度不稳定性的影响

• DOI: http://dx.10.1051/0004-6361/202345965
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Astronomy & Astrophysics
• 影响因子: 6.5
• 作者: Opie S

Conditions for Proton Temperature Anisotropy to Drive Instabilities in the Solar Wind

质子温度各向异性导致太阳风不稳定的条件

• DOI: http://dx.10.3847/1538-4357/ac982f
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal
• 作者: Opie S

Properties Underlying the Variation of the Magnetic Field Spectral Index in the Inner Solar Wind

内太阳风磁场谱指数变化的特性

• DOI: http://dx.10.3847/1538-4357/acf3dd
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal
• 作者: McIntyre J

Parker Solar Probe Observations of High Plasma ß Solar Wind from the Streamer Belt

帕克太阳探测器对高等离子体的观测 - 来自流带带的太阳风

• DOI: http://dx.10.3847/1538-4365/acbcd2
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
• 作者: Huang J