Division of Physics

C. Denise Caldwell

Division Director

Presentation to the Plasma Science Committee, July 2014

National Science Foundation

Plasma Physics Program - Overview

NSF/DOE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science & Engineering (solicitation NSF 13-596) in existence since 1997, under interagency MOU combined funding level $2.1 M FY13 (new starts) NSF ( 7 programs), DOE BPS, & AFOSR 12% of submissions funded

NSF Career Awards 5 yr grants, 8 awarded since 2005, young faculty

Conference/Workshop grants

How does anti-matter behave?Where are the new frontiers for plasmas in biology & medicine?Where are we headed with plasma systems in nanoscale manufacturing?Where will fundamental knowledge lead with plasmas for combustion, lighting & displays?Why do some planets & stars have strong surface magnetic fields and others do not?What is the origin of coronae and winds in virtually all stars, including the Sun?How are magnetic fields generated in stars, galaxies, and clusters?How does the addition of charged dust affect plasma behavior?Can plasma processes lead to room sized high energy particle accelerators?

The Plasma Physics Program embraces the diversity and dynamism of the plasma physics field

Scientific Focus

Some key science questions for the field:

Current Plasma Physics Portfolio

• HED/LPI … 18 projects• Low Temperature … 21

projects• Turbulence, etc. … 20

projects• Reconnection … 13

projects• TOTAL … 72 projects

Thru end of FY13

Projects

Low Temp 29%

Recon18%

Turb28%

HED - LPI25%

Plasma Program – research areas Basic Plasma Science Facility at UCLA was renewed thru

2016 … shared funding between DOE Office of Science & several NSF divisions

NSF – PHY 1036140 – Walter Gekelman, PI

Plasma Program – research areas

Figure 1. Illustration plot of a two-bunch PWFA in the "Blow-Out" regime. This plot is a combination of (a) the plot of cross-section of the plasma electron density (three blue plots on the walls), (b) three dimensional contour surface of the plasma electron density (green surfaces which stand for the inside and outside surfaces of the plasma electron sheath around the bubble) and (c) the beam particles (plotted as colored dots

Simulations of Plasma Wake Field Accelerator experiments at FACET*

NSF – PHY 0936266 -- PI Chan Joshi; this work … University of California Los Angeles, CA, USA, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM, USA, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, CA, USA, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa, Portugal

Plasma Program – research areasOptical nonlinearity in Ar and N2 near the ionization threshold … measured with 10 fs time resolution and micron space resolution … impacts for example propagation of intense laser pulses in gases

NSF – PHY 0904302 -- PI Howard Milchberg; this work … University of Maryland, College Park MD

Plasma Program – research areas“Assessment of Proton Deflectometry for Exploding Wire Experiments”

•Proton deflectometry has the potential to recover details of the B-field configuration vital to accurate interpretation and simulation of these systems

NSF – PHY 0903876 -- PI Farhat Beg; Co-PIs Mingsheng Wei & Simon Bott; University of California San Diego, CA, USA

Plasma Program – research areas

Figure based on a kinetic simulation shows a typical trajectory of a trapped electron in anti-parallel reconnection overlaid on contours of constant |B|

Three-Dimensional Onset and Evolution of Spontaneous Reconnection

NSF – PHY – 0844620 – Jan Egedal-Pedersen, PI – MIT

Plasma Program – research areas

“Melting is a kind of disorder. We measured disorder locally, in each video frame. Then we prepared this graph which shows how disorder spreads. There is a melting front that moves through the crystalline lattice. Previously nobody knew whether it would propagate at the speed of transverse or longitudinal waves or not at any fixed speed at all due to thermal diffusion. We found it had the fixed speed of the transverse wave.”

Evolution of shear induced melting in dusty plasma

NSF – PHY – 0903501 – John Goree, PI – this work was published in PRL with co-authors Yan Feng , John Goree & Bin Liu – University of Iowa

Plasma Program – research areas

$0

$50

$100

$150

$200

$250

$300

Amou

nt (M

illio

ns)

FY12

$ 1309 MFY 2012 – 4.5% +4.0%

FY13FY14

$ 1250 MFY 2013 -0.3%

FY15

$ 1300 MFY 2014

(estimate)

1.6% 3.6%2.4%

5.2%

2.8%

vs. FY13

MPS Budgets

AST CHE DMR DMS PHY

$ 1296 M(request)

FY 2015

FY 2014 Budget Estimate

Physics Division Estimate for FY 2014 is $266.3 M

Approximately 2% for Operations - Panels, IPA Appointments, IPA Travel, M&S

Approximately 30% for M&O for Facilities – ATLAS and CMS, IceCube, LIGO, NSCL

Approximately 8% for Physics Frontiers Centers – Competition Underway

Approximately 3% for Education and Broadening Participation –REU Sites, LIGO Education Center, QuarkNet

Leaves 57% ($152 M) to Cover Major Areas of Physics –Experimental and Theoretical

Base Programs Essentially Flat with Respect to FY 2013

FY 2015 NSF Budget Request to Congress

Amount Percent

Research & Related Activities $5,558.88 $5,808.92 $5,807.46 -$1.46 -0.03%

Education & Human Resources 834.62 846.50 889.75 43.25 5.1%Major Research Equipment & Facilities 196.49 200.00 200.76 0.76 0.4%

Construction

Agency Operations & Award Management 293.50 298.00 338.23 40.23 13.5%

National Science Board 4.10 4.30 4.37 0.07 1.6%

Office of Inspector General1

14.33 14.20 14.43 0.23 1.6%

Total, NSF $6,901.91 $7,171.92 $7,255.00 $83.08 1.2%

Totals may not add due to rounding.

1 FY 2013 Actual includes $1.16 million of obligations funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

FY 2014Estimate

FY 2013 Actual

NSF Funding by Account(Dollars in Millions)

FY 2015Request

FY 2015 RequestChange Over

FY 2014 Estimate

R&RA – Research and Related Activities(Direct Support for Research and Facilities Operations)

MPS is 22.3% of Total

Amount Percent

Biological Sciences $679.21 $721.27 $708.52 -$12.75 -1.8%

Computer & Information Science & Engineering 858.13 894.00 893.35 -0.65 -0.1%

Engineering 820.18 851.07 858.17 7.10 0.8%

Geosciences 1,273.77 1,303.03 1,304.39 1.36 0.1%

Mathematical & Physical Sciences 1,249.34 1,299.80 1,295.56 -4.24 -0.3%

Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences 242.62 256.85 272.20 15.35 6.0%

International and Integrative Activities 434.28 481.59 473.86 -7.73 -1.6%

U.S. Arctic Research Commission 1.39 1.30 1.41 0.11 8.1%

Total, R&RA $5,558.88 $5,808.92 $5,807.46 -$1.46 -

Totals may not add due to rounding.

R&RA Funding(Dollars in Millions)

Change overFY 2014 EstimateFY 2013

ActualFY 2014Estimate

FY 2015Request

Amount Percent

Astronomical Sciences (AST) $232.17 $239.06 $236.24 -$2.82 -1.2%

Chemistry (CHE) 229.39 235.79 237.23 1.44 0.6%

Materials Research (DMR) 291.09 298.01 298.99 0.98 0.3%

Mathematical Sciences (DMS) 219.02 225.64 224.40 -1.24 -0.5%

Physics (PHY) 250.45 266.30 263.70 -2.60 -1.0%

Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) 27.22 35.00 35.00 - -

Total, MPS $1,249.34 $1,299.80 $1,295.56 -$4.24 -0.3%

Totals may not add due to rounding.

MPS Funding(Dollars in Millions)

FY 2013Actual

FY 2014 Estimate

FY 2015 Request

Change OverFY 2014 Estimate

FY 2015 MPS Budget Request to Congress

Reaching Out Across NSF

Key Player in CIF21 through CDS&ERevamped Computational Physics to Focus on New Approaches

to Computation Driven by Science QuestionsStressed Overlap with Disciplinary Programs in DivisionWorked Closely with Program in Advanced Cyberinfrastructure

Launched New Program in Accelerator ScienceUniversity-Based Program with Focus on EducationSeeking New ParadigmsCurrently Reviewing 50+ Proposals

e.g. SI2-SSI: Particle-in-cell and kinetic simulation centerACI-1339893, UCLA, Warren Mori, PI

Benefit through MRI

e.g. MRI: Development of Magnetized Dusty Plasma DevicePHY-1126067, Auburn, Edward Thomas, PI

MRI: Consortium: Development of A Large Plasma Device for Studies of Magnetic Reconnection and Related Phenomena

Five Perspectives on the Frontiers of Physics

Controlling the Quantum World– Electromagnetic radiation in the non-classical limit,Entanglement, Cavity QED, QIS, Optomechanics

Complex Systems and Collective Behavior – Living cells, biological systems, ultracold fermions and bosons, quark-gluon liquid

Neutrinos and Beyond the Higgs – Neutrino mass, new particles, unification of quantum mechanics and gravity, electron and neutron dipole moments

Origin and Structure of the Universe – Star formation and creation of the elements,dark matter and dark energy, modeling of black holes, gravitational waves,magnetic fields

Strongly-Interacting Systems– QCD computations, quark structure of baryons, high-field laser-matter interactions, supernovae, strong gravity