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The Wisconsin Plasma Astrophysics Laboratory

Part of: Experiments Fundamental Plasma Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2015

C. B. Forest Open the ORCID record for C. B. Forest [Opens in a new window] ,
K. Flanagan ,
M. Brookhart ,
M. Clark ,
C. M. Cooper ,
V. Désangles ,
J. Egedal ,
D. Endrizzi ,
I. V. Khalzov  and
H. Li
...Show all authors
C. B. Forest*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
K. Flanagan
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
M. Brookhart
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
M. Clark
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
C. M. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
V. Désangles
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physique de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, and Université de Lyon, 46 Allée d’Italie, 69364 Lyon CEDEX 7, France
J. Egedal
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
D. Endrizzi
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
I. V. Khalzov
Affiliation:
National Research Centre ‘Kurchatov Institute’, Moscow 123182, Russia
H. Li
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
M. Miesch
Affiliation:
High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, USA
J. Milhone
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
M. Nornberg
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
J. Olson
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
E. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
F. Roesler
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
A. Schekochihin
Affiliation:
Rudolph Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 6NP, UK Merton College, Oxford OS1 4JD, UK
O. Schmitz
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
R. Siller
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
A. Spitkovsky
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
A. Stemo
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
J. Wallace
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
D. Weisberg
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
E. Zweibel
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Wisconsin Plasma Astrophysics Laboratory (WiPAL) is a flexible user facility designed to study a range of astrophysically relevant plasma processes as well as novel geometries that mimic astrophysical systems. A multi-cusp magnetic bucket constructed from strong samarium cobalt permanent magnets now confines a $10~\text{m}^{3}$ , fully ionized, magnetic-field-free plasma in a spherical geometry. Plasma parameters of $T_{e}\approx 5$ to $20~\text{eV}$ and $n_{e}\approx 10^{11}$ to $5\times 10^{12}~\text{cm}^{-3}$ provide an ideal testbed for a range of astrophysical experiments, including self-exciting dynamos, collisionless magnetic reconnection, jet stability, stellar winds and more. This article describes the capabilities of WiPAL, along with several experiments, in both operating and planning stages, that illustrate the range of possibilities for future users.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 81 , Issue 5 , October 2015 , 345810501
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

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