Cross Disciplinary Feasibility Account: Warwick Centre for Fusion Space and Astrophysics.
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
A central idea that we wish to pursue is the dynamic response of real world complex systems to 'shock or surprise'. Both the brain and financial systems (meaning markets, individual companies or sectors), are functionally comprised of many interacting elements which propagate and process information. A highly topical question is whether it is possible to quantify from available data when the response of a system to a 'shock' will be within normal bounds (normal response time to a neurological test task, a fluctuation in price) or will be highly correlated and catastrophic (a seizure, a stock market crash or company failure). Understanding this would lead to paradigm shifting insights into both brain function and financial system dynamics. Researchers within Warwick's interdisciplinary EPSRC and STFC funded Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics (CFSA) have pioneered techniques to analyse 'real world' data from laboratory experiments for Magnetic Confinement Fusion and from astrophysical plasmas. These plasma systems can exhibit rather unpredictable 'bursty' behaviour and can self organise, that is, show large scale transitions from disordered to highly ordered, correlated behaviour. We propose to apply these ideas to focus on two cross-disciplinary 'grand challenges': brain function, and market dynamics, as captured by Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements of the brain, and by financial and other company data. This implies a high degree of cross- disciplinary working, between plasma physicists within CFSA, Warwick, neurologists within the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, and strategists within the Warwick Business School.In the framework of the physical sciences there is a direct and well understood mapping between quantifying such systems and modelling them. An open question that we will address is how such a mapping can be rigorously and usefully applied in the wider context. By building bridges between traditionally segregated disciplines (neuroscience, econometrics and plasma physics) we can tackle substantive interdisciplinary questions, for example, in what sense is a market crash like an epileptic seizure in the brain? Addressing such questions in a quantitative and predictive manner has the potential for far reaching impact in both clinical neuroscience and econometrics. This radical approach will enable physical models to be extended beyond their now mature application to contribute, and perhaps create, a far broader interface with the wider social sciences.
Planned Impact
The nature of the work being undertaken is highly speculative but has potential for far reaching impact. Clearly, any advance in our understanding of the response of financial markets and systems to 'shocks', or a diagnostic of neurological health based on non-invasive MEG technology will have the potential to make significant contributions to EPSRC's priority themes of security of energy supply and living with environmental change, and next generation healthcare. Who will benefit from the research and how will they benefit from this research? Development of new quantitative tools to assess how brain systems process information in healthy and disordered states will be of considerable interest to clinical neuroscience and psychiatry. Ultimately, quantitative insights into how MEG data relate to human brain function would lead to methods to diagnose cognitive function and disorders, with particular application to epilepsy and schizophrenia. The economic and social costs of brain disorders associated with impaired cognitive function and poor occupational performance are substantial. The annual costs of schizophrenia alone are estimated to be in the order of 7bn annually in the UK, of which about 2bn is due to direct healthcare costs. In tackling these disorders therapeutically, a key objective is to develop better models for how distributed brain systems normally process information and how pathological disruption of these systems can lead to impairment. The development of quantitative approaches to MEG that we propose would ensure that full scientific value is obtained from the major recent investments in neuroimaging infrastructure and it will potentially provide new diagnostic and predictive biomarkers of cognitive impairment that could be used to improve patient care and to support development of new pro-cognitive drugs. The importance of the proposed research from this perspective is that it includes data on well-established cognitive testing paradigms in healthy volunteers and people with schizophrenia. This means that the results will be immediately of interest to academic and industrial neuroscientists with potential for major impact on how cognitive disorders are understood theoretically and approached therapeutically. Quantifying the likely impact of news or events on markets and companies again has clear application to their monitoring and management. The current instability has cost some 475bn globally according to the IMF. Clearly any successful mitigation techniques would be valuable to business strategists and organisations from single investors to Governments (eg Risk Analysts, Company Director mentors, Financial strategists and Central Banks). There is also potentially a significant feedback to plasma physics based challenges in particular space weather applications and to understanding enhanced confinement modes of MCF with relevance to ITER operating regimes. What will be done to ensure that they benefit from this research? Cognitive researchers are typically also practicing clinicians, and business strategists in academia work closely with companies. Results and ideas flowing from this research would therefore quickly flow into potential applications where appropriate. We will also present and promote our results more formally at workshops open to practicing clinicians and to practicing business strategists. We will engage the wider community and press where appropriate. Warwick Ventures have a strategy and procedure in place to effect licensing and dissemination to the wider business community. There is also direct benefit to the training of young researchers and enhancement of interdisciplinary activity. We will provide training and introduction to patents, licensing and spin- out companies to the researchers supported on this grant.
Organisations
Publications
Chapman B
(2018)
Nonlinear wave interactions generate high-harmonic cyclotron emission from fusion-born protons during a KSTAR ELM crash
in Nuclear Fusion
Mazzitelli G
(2011)
FTU results with a liquid lithium limiter
in Nuclear Fusion
Chapman B
(2017)
Sub-microsecond temporal evolution of edge density during edge localized modes in KSTAR tokamak plasmas inferred from ion cyclotron emission
in Nuclear Fusion
Kirk A
(2017)
Overview of recent physics results from MAST
in Nuclear Fusion
Meyer H
(2017)
Overview of progress in European medium sized tokamaks towards an integrated plasma-edge/wall solution a
in Nuclear Fusion
Poli E
(2009)
Behaviour of turbulent transport in the vicinity of a magnetic island
in Nuclear Fusion
Blanken T
(2019)
Real-time plasma state monitoring and supervisory control on TCV
in Nuclear Fusion
Weiland J
(2009)
Symmetry breaking effects of toroidicity on toroidal momentum transport
in Nuclear Fusion
Chapman S
(2017)
The global build-up to intrinsic ELM bursts and comparison with pellet triggered ELMs seen in JET
in Nuclear Fusion
Kirk A
(2010)
Resonant magnetic perturbation experiments on MAST using external and internal coils for ELM control
in Nuclear Fusion
Reman B
(2019)
Interpreting observations of ion cyclotron emission from large helical device plasmas with beam-injected ion populations
in Nuclear Fusion
Grinenko A
(2009)
One-dimensional hydrodynamic simulation of high energy density experiments
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Gericke D
(2009)
Modelling the scattering of X-rays in warm dense matter
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Kiyani KH
(2015)
Dissipation and heating in solar wind turbulence: from the macro to the micro and back again.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
De Moortel I
(2012)
Magnetohydrodynamic waves and coronal seismology: an overview of recent results.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Chapman SC
(2013)
On estimating local long-term climate trends.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
WATKINS N
(2009)
Kinetic equation of linear fractional stable motion and applications to modeling the scaling of intermittent bursts.
in Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
KIYANI K
(2009)
Pseudononstationarity in the scaling exponents of finite-interval time series.
in Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys
KIYANI K
(2009)
Global scale-invariant dissipation in collisionless plasma turbulence.
in Phys Rev Lett
WATKINS N
(2009)
Comment on "coexistence of self-organized criticality and intermittent turbulence in the solar corona".
in Phys Rev Lett
Cook JW
(2010)
Electron current drive by fusion-product-excited lower hybrid drift instability.
in Physical review letters
Camenen Y
(2009)
Transport of Parallel Momentum Induced by Current-Symmetry Breaking in Toroidal Plasmas
in Physical Review Letters
Ridgers C
(2012)
Dense Electron-Positron Plasmas and Ultraintense ? rays from Laser-Irradiated Solids
in Physical Review Letters
Osman KT
(2013)
Proton kinetic effects and turbulent energy cascade rate in the solar wind.
in Physical review letters
Vorberger J
(2012)
Dynamic Ion Structure Factor of Warm Dense Matter
in Physical Review Letters
Osman K
(2014)
Magnetic Reconnection and Intermittent Turbulence in the Solar Wind
in Physical Review Letters
Hnat B
(2021)
Magnetic Topology of Actively Evolving and Passively Convecting Structures in the Turbulent Solar Wind.
in Physical review letters
Watkins NW
(2009)
Comment on "Coexistence of self-organized criticality and intermittent turbulence in the solar corona".
in Physical review letters
Mantica P
(2009)
Experimental study of the ion critical-gradient length and stiffness level and the impact of rotation in the JET tokamak.
in Physical review letters
Camenen Y
(2010)
Experimental evidence of momentum transport induced by an up-down asymmetric magnetic equilibrium in toroidal plasmas.
in Physical review letters
Cook J
(2017)
Stimulated Emission of Fast Alfvén Waves within Magnetically Confined Fusion Plasmas
in Physical Review Letters
Chapman SC
(2009)
Generalized similarity in finite range solar wind magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.
in Physical review letters
Kiyani KH
(2009)
Global scale-invariant dissipation in collisionless plasma turbulence.
in Physical review letters
Freethy SJ
(2015)
Electron kinetics inferred from observations of microwave bursts during edge localized modes in the mega-amp spherical tokamak.
in Physical review letters
Leonardis E
(2013)
Identification of Intermittent Multifractal Turbulence in Fully Kinetic Simulations of Magnetic Reconnection
in Physical Review Letters
Cho IH
(2018)
Two-Dimensional Solar Wind Speeds from 6 to 26 Solar Radii in Solar Cycle 24 by Using Fourier Filtering.
in Physical review letters
Carbajal L
(2017)
Quantifying Fusion Born Ion Populations in Magnetically Confined Plasmas using Ion Cyclotron Emission.
in Physical review letters
Brady CS
(2012)
Laser absorption in relativistically underdense plasmas by synchrotron radiation.
in Physical review letters
Turner AJ
(2012)
Nonaxisymmetric anisotropy of solar wind turbulence as a direct test for models of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.
in Physical review letters
Tala T
(2009)
Evidence of Inward Toroidal Momentum Convection in the JET Tokamak
in Physical Review Letters
Meyrand R
(2016)
Direct Evidence of the Transition from Weak to Strong Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence
in Physical Review Letters
Osman KT
(2012)
Kinetic signatures and intermittent turbulence in the solar wind plasma.
in Physical review letters
Deng C
(2009)
Energetic-Electron-Driven Instability in the Helically Symmetric Experiment
in Physical Review Letters
Watkins NW
(2009)
Kinetic equation of linear fractional stable motion and applications to modeling the scaling of intermittent bursts.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Kiyani KH
(2009)
Pseudononstationarity in the scaling exponents of finite-interval time series.
in Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics
Zhu H
(2015)
A quantitative model for heat pulse propagation across large helical device plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Peeters A
(2009)
Influence of the centrifugal force and parallel dynamics on the toroidal momentum transport due to small scale turbulence in a tokamak
in Physics of Plasmas
Zhu H
(2013)
Robustness of predator-prey models for confinement regime transitions in fusion plasmas
in Physics of Plasmas
Chapman S
(2009)
Macroscopic control parameter for avalanche models for bursty transport
in Physics of Plasmas
| Description | please see the relevant research papers |
| Exploitation Route | please see the relevant research papers and grants |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Environment Financial Services and Management Consultancy Healthcare |
| Description | please see the relevant research papers |
| First Year Of Impact | 2013 |
| Sector | Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | AFOSR |
| Amount | $100,000 (USD) |
| Funding ID | FA9550-17-1-0054 |
| Organisation | Airforce Office of Scientific Research |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United States |
| Start | 03/2017 |
| End | 03/2018 |
| Description | Fulbright-Lloyd's of London Scholarship 2017/18 |
| Amount | $60,000 (USD) |
| Organisation | US-UK Fulbright Commission |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 09/2018 |
| Description | NORKLIMA |
| Amount | kr 900,000 (NOK) |
| Organisation | Research Council of Norway |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Norway |
| Start | 01/2014 |
| End | 01/2016 |
| Description | Newton-CONICYT |
| Amount | $1,438,000 (CLP) |
| Organisation | Newton Fund |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2015 |
| End | 10/2016 |