This month, the US Department of Energy launches two research centers with members from university, industry, and government labs. They are the Center for Multiscale Plasma Dynamics, headed jointly by UCLA and the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Fusion Center for Extreme States of Matter and Fast Ignition Physics, led by the University of Rochester.
The multiscale center will focus on interactions between microscale turbulence and large-scale plasma effects. “You are dealing with things that might vary by six orders of magnitude in nonlinear systems,” says Bill Dorland of Maryland, center co-director with UCLA’s Steve Cowley. “These kinds of challenges need new algorithms, not just new computers.”
At the fast ignition center, scientists aim to trigger thermonuclear ignition using two lasers. A pellet of deuterium and tritium that has been compressed by a high-energy laser will be zapped with a petawatt laser to create an electron beam that...
